# Cal. Zephyr have wifi?



## Ronnie1a (Sep 15, 2012)

Going east from Martinez. Some trains have it, some do not. Cannot find specifics on who does or does not.


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## RRrich (Sep 15, 2012)

Nope - gotta bring your own :angry2:


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## AlanB (Sep 15, 2012)

No long distance trains have WiFi, including the California Zephyr. The Capitol Corridor trains, which also operate through Martinez, do have WiFi.


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## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 15, 2012)

CZ does not have Wi-Fi. Easy way to find out: http://www.amtrak.com/train-routes

You know the Wi-Fi symbol, right?


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## Yoshi55 (Sep 15, 2012)

Ronnie1a said:


> Going east from Martinez. Some trains have it, some do not. Cannot find specifics on who does or does not.


Nice, do you live near the Martinez station? that's the amtrak station I go too.

Just check the amtrak website, and you'll see the wi-fi symbol next to the train route.


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## GG-1 (Sep 15, 2012)

Yoshi55 said:


> Ronnie1a said:
> 
> 
> > Going east from Martinez. Some trains have it, some do not. Cannot find specifics on who does or does not.
> ...


Aloha

Going east about 10 years ago there were significant sections where I did not have any cell coverage, so I bet there are the same loss of wifi service.


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## leemell (Sep 16, 2012)

AlanB said:


> No long distance trains have WiFi, including the California Zephyr. The Capitol Corridor trains, which also operate through Martinez, do have WiFi.


Actually the Coast Starlight does.


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## AlanB (Sep 16, 2012)

leemell said:


> AlanB said:
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> 
> > No long distance trains have WiFi, including the California Zephyr. The Capitol Corridor trains, which also operate through Martinez, do have WiFi.
> ...


No, only the Pacific Parlour car has it on the Starlight; the rest of the train does not have WiFi. And when it is working in the PPC, and easily half the time it's not, it isn't very effective in many places. Especially in Oregon.

And I'm not sure if Amtrak will even continue to bother to try to keep it running in the PPC.


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## jebr (Sep 16, 2012)

Ronnie1a said:


> Going east from Martinez. Some trains have it, some do not. Cannot find specifics on who does or does not.


One coach car did have it on a trip on the EB California Zephyr, though I could never actually connect to it. (It was named AmtrakConnect or something similar...I was in the next car over.) It's not standard (or even ever really seen, actually.)


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## leemell (Sep 16, 2012)

AlanB said:


> leemell said:
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> > AlanB said:
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While I agree with you, Amtrak does list it as having wi-fi on the train routes with symbol next to it.


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## X (Sep 16, 2012)

jebr said:


> Ronnie1a said:
> 
> 
> > Going east from Martinez. Some trains have it, some do not. Cannot find specifics on who does or does not.
> ...


Some Superliner coaches had Wi-Fi installed in Los Angeles for use on Surfliner trains.

So of course Amtrak promptly grabbed several of them and stuck them on Long Distance runs, they've been trying to herd them all back to LA ever since...


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## slimchipley (Sep 18, 2012)

AlanB said:


> leemell said:
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> > AlanB said:
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They seem to have enough trouble just keeping the PPC running.


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## Mike Shiflett (Apr 24, 2013)

Here are my notes on Amtrak California Zephyr Internet availability from Iowa to emeryville (westbound). Hope it helps you plan. This was using Verizon mifi.

Border of Iowa to omaha almost nothing

80 miles North East of Denver good

Denver to about 25 west good

Spotty from 25 west of Denver to winter park

Winter park to Granby almost nothing

Granby to 10 miles outside Glenwood springs nothing

Glenwood springs to Rifle good

Rifle to Grand Junction service real good until abrupt stop 20 East of Clifton.

Service resumed 5 miles easy of Palisade. Good to 20 miles west of Grand Junction

From the i70 and route 6 intersection service is very good until 30 miles west of Green Valley, UT

Good 20 mikes from Price, UT

Winnemuca, NV to just NE of Fallon, NV good

Abeam Fallon to Reno good

Reno to Trukee, CA good

Trukee to 50 miles from Colfax good

Service again from Dutch flats to Colfax low signal but there

Colfax to Sacramento. Spotty until Applegate then solid and good to Sacramento

Sacramento to Bay Area - Good Coverage


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## Anderson (Apr 24, 2013)

AlanB said:


> 'leemell' said:
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> > 'AlanB' said:
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It seemed reasonably effective on my trip, and in the case of the PPC I strongly suspect it's a _very_ marginal expenditure for the router and the link. It's the sort of thing that selling one or two bedrooms per year would pay for.

With that said, IIRC you can often grab quick connections at one or two of the stations between CHI and OSC (IIRC, Burlington and Princeton have grabbable connections, and I think I got lucky at Galesburg as well).


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## AKA (Apr 24, 2013)

Mike Shiflett said:


> Here are my notes on Amtrak California Zephyr Internet availability from Iowa to emeryville (westbound). Hope it helps you plan. This was using Verizon mifi.
> 
> 
> Abeam Fallon to Reno good


Have not seen or heard, Abeam in a long time. Takes me back to Navy days.


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## SeeBuyFly (Apr 24, 2013)

Mike Shiflett said:


> Here are my notes on Amtrak California Zephyr Internet availability from Iowa to emeryville (westbound). Hope it helps you plan. This was using Verizon mifi.


You realize, I hope, that when you say "California Zephyr internet availability" you are in fact talking not about an Amtrak-provided wifi facility (the topic of this thread) but about Verizon cell signal strength. The fact that you were using mifi isn't really relevant, that's not a wifi signal available to other passengers.

AT&T is of course even worse than Verizon throughout the west.


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## Mike shiflett (Apr 24, 2013)

Right. There is no Amtrak wifi on the Zephyr. You must have a mobile carrier device/phone to get it. There is a good app called Coverage? For iPad and iPhone that does a great job of showing mobile Internet coverage. They donypt have the Amtrak routes on the phone but you can at least see where you are and see the names of towns ahead to get an idea of what coverage you may get. I have asked them to consider adding Amtrak routes as they are built into google maps already. We will see on that. I'm taking the California Zephyr again In June 2013 from Chicago to emeryville so i can update the coverage then.

Again, don't expect any Internet service from Amtrak on any trains other than east coast trains and the coast starlight in California assuming any of that works on any given day. Use your phone or get a device from a mobile carrier if you want to have any sort of access at all.

I have an AT&T plan on my iPhone and a mobile hotspot from Verizon. For Amtrak it's too pricey to fit rail lines with wifi and for carriers there isn't enough users to do it either miso the best we get on most of the trains is wifi when the rail lines are thru a town or along a main road.

Good travels.


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