Stations with Wi-Fi

[BCL]

Since someone resurrected an old thread on Wi-Fi on LD trains, I thought I'd bring it up.

A lot of airports have free Wi-Fi these days although some require sitting through an ad first. None of the train stations I regularly use do. The only one I've been to that does is NY Penn Station, and maybe only near the Amtrak waiting lounge. It appeared just like on the trains as "AmtrakConnect", although the speed was extremely fast and it didn't seem to block video. On a train, I often find the Amtrak Wi-Fi slow, and the amount of data I use is negligible unless it's video (which is usually blocked) or an update download.

Any other stations with Wi-Fi? I'm thinking maybe some of the major stations do.

 

[John Bobinyec]

Cary, NC (CYN) has wifi.

jb

 

[Ryan]

WAS does.

 

[SubwayNut]

The temporary Denver Station does. Hartford has it.

• Amtrak's Official List:
  
  Baltimore, MD - Penn Station
  [*]Boston, MA - South Station - available inside ClubAcela only
  [*]Lorton, VA
  [*]New York, NY - Penn Station - available in the gate areas and inside ClubAcela
  [*]Philadelphia, PA - 30th Street Station - available in the gate areas and inside ClubAcela
  [*]Providence, RI
  [*]Sanford, FL
  [*]Washington, DC - Union Station - available in the gate areas and inside ClubAcela
  [*]Westwood, MA - Route 128
  [*]Wilmington, DE - Wilmington Station

 

[Tumbleweed]

CUS has it in the Metropolitan Lounge....

 

[battalion51]

You might be able to add WPK and ORL before too long. It would surprise me if SunRail didn't install Wi-Fi at its stations and on the trains...

 

[Blackwolf]

SAC advertises that it has it, but it is about 50/50 for availability. The construction does not help matters, though.

 

[Dovecote]

The Auto Train stations in Lorton and Sanford have this service. Interesting though while in the train at Sanford waiting for train coupling the signal strength was too weak to pickup the signal. Not sure if the same results would occur in Lorton.

 

[pennyk]

You might be able to add WPK and ORL before too long. It would surprise me if SunRail didn't install Wi-Fi at its stations and on the trains...

I hope so, but I have not heard anything about it.

 

[Dovecote]

CUS has it in the Metropolitan Lounge....

And.....It probably will be necessary to have the desk agents reboot the server during the time spent in there!

 

[Rail Freak]

Martinez does.

 

[zephyr17]

CUS has it in the Metropolitan Lounge....

Well, sort of...

 

[the_traveler]

I also believe Albany (NY) has free wifi too - but I'm not certain about that.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

CUS has it in the Metropolitan Lounge....

Well, sort of...

After hearing this particular connection badmouthed, like, forever, I was pleasantly surprised - during the Team Whooz layover on the way to the Philly Gathering last October - to find the connection robust. Strong, fast, no problems whatsoever; Toshiba Satellite laptop, Win 7, IE 8. Easily posted a trip report update from the Metro lounge (which I called "Amtrak's Morbid Obesity Lounge" for reasons that woulda been clear to anybody present) while waiting to board the Cardinal.

Given my excellent experience I recall wondering at the time what all the complaining had been about, and whether those who had griped even knew how to properly operate their rigs.

 

[AlanB]

I also believe Albany (NY) has free wifi too - but I'm not certain about that.

Last I knew, they did not. A cafe offered some, but you had to be in the cafe and have purchased something I believe.

 

[Anderson]

In my travels, I've been able to pull free connections at/from the following stations:
-Los Angeles, CA (Starbucks)
-Flagstaff, AZ (station)
-Lamy, NM (local community center)
-Alburqurque, NM (RailRunner/Greyhound)
-Milwaukee, WI (Greyhound)
-La Junta, CO (La Junta Community Center)
-La Plata, MO (I forget if it's the station or just a local hotel)
-St. Louis, MO (station)
-Burlington, IA
-Princeton, IL (I think)
-Galesburg, IL (I think...I know one of these two has one from a cafe in the station)
-Chicago, IL (go upstairs and use McDonalds' connection)
-Cumberland, MD (local downtown network)
-Richmond Main Street (ask at the desk for the password)
-Montreal, QC (you can usually grab the station network while on the train, and there's a decent connection upstairs)

This is in addition to the "official" stations on the NEC (WAS, NYP, PHL, etc.). I think I've just had bad luck at Albany or been on a train with wireless there.

Note that in more than a few cases, as noted, it's not the station providing the connection but rather someone incidentally nearby.

 

[Ispolkom]

In Alpine, Texas, you can get unprotected wifi from the nearby Holland House hotel. In Shelby, Montana I could get a poor connection through the Oil City Saloon.

 

[TimePeace]

Portland, ME (POR)

 

[Devil's Advocate]

No WiFi at San Antonio (SAS) unfortunately.

Last time I was there they didn't even have anything for the television to tune into.

In my travels, I've been able to pull free connections at/from the following stations:-Los Angeles, CA (Starbucks)

-Flagstaff, AZ (station)

-Lamy, NM (local community center)

-Alburqurque, NM (RailRunner/Greyhound)

-Milwaukee, WI (Greyhound)

-La Junta, CO (La Junta Community Center)

-La Plata, MO (I forget if it's the station or just a local hotel)

-St. Louis, MO (station)

-Burlington, IA

-Princeton, IL (I think)

-Galesburg, IL (I think...I know one of these two has one from a cafe in the station)

-Chicago, IL (go upstairs and use McDonalds' connection)

-Cumberland, MD (local downtown network)

-Richmond Main Street (ask at the desk for the password)

-Montreal, QC (you can usually grab the station network while on the train, and there's a decent connection upstairs)

This is in addition to the "official" stations on the NEC (WAS, NYP, PHL, etc.). I think I've just had bad luck at Albany or been on a train with wireless there.

Note that in more than a few cases, as noted, it's not the station providing the connection but rather someone incidentally nearby.

Thanks for that post Anderson. That's just the kind of list I was hoping to find.

CUS has it in the Metropolitan Lounge....

And.....It probably will be necessary to have the desk agents reboot the server during the time spent in there!

In my experience it's not usually a server problem so much as a router or modem issue. Many businesses purchase or lease internet equipment designed for home use and then expect it to run 24/7 without locking up or overheating. Unfortunately most business class routers cost a few thousand dollars or more and many businesses don't want to pay that much. The best low-cost alternative I'm aware of is to put a home class router on a timer that automatically powers it down every day at a time when nobody is likely to be around. Many routers and modems only need to be powered down a half hour or so before they're ready for another day of work. Keep another modem and router programmed and ready to replace the current set then they die and you'll have amazing reliability for cheap.

 

[Guest]

Many businesses purchase or lease internet equipment designed for home use and then expect it to run 24/7 without locking up or overheating.

My home router runs 24/7.

Does anyone actually turn their home router off when they go to work/school, or go to bed at night?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Many businesses purchase or lease internet equipment designed for home use and then expect it to run 24/7 without locking up or overheating.

My home router runs 24/7.

Does anyone actually turn their home router off when they go to work/school, or go to bed at night?

Probably not, but they do muck about manually restarting it whenever it doesn't work correctly. Over the course of a router's life what seems like a few minutes here and there can become hours of wasted time that would be better spent doing other things, such as whatever jobs you hired and trained your staff to take care of. Having your employees put everything else on hold so they can go screw around with an internet router is completely unnecessary and counterproductive.

In the case of my employer we install business class hardware because we don't have the time or the staff to waste on endlessly rebooting anything. Every person at a remote plant or satellite office or other site has a job and a purpose completely unrelated to randomly mucking about. Choosing business class hardware comes with a heavy upfront cost but once it's up and running that's it. If the circuit goes down it's because the ISP in charge of the last mile screwed up and not because of anything we could prevent.

 

[Anderson]

Many businesses purchase or lease internet equipment designed for home use and then expect it to run 24/7 without locking up or overheating.

My home router runs 24/7.

Does anyone actually turn their home router off when they go to work/school, or go to bed at night?

I don't, but about once every day or two it "hiccups" for a few minutes and I occasionally have to cut it off for 5-10 minutes to reboot it. It's a modest pain, but the "bad" hiccups are occasional and not what I'd call a major issue.

 

[AlanB]

Many businesses purchase or lease internet equipment designed for home use and then expect it to run 24/7 without locking up or overheating.

My home router runs 24/7.

Does anyone actually turn their home router off when they go to work/school, or go to bed at night?

Probably not, but they do muck about manually restarting it whenever it doesn't work correctly. Over the course of a router's life what seems like a few minutes here and there can become hours of wasted time that would be better spent doing other things, such as whatever jobs you hired and trained your staff to take care of. Having your employees put everything else on hold so they can go screw around with an internet router is completely unnecessary and counterproductive.

In the case of my employer we install business class hardware because we don't have the time or the staff to waste on endlessly rebooting anything. Every person at a remote plant or satellite office or other site has a job and a purpose completely unrelated to randomly mucking about. Choosing business class hardware comes with a heavy upfront cost but once it's up and running that's it. If the circuit goes down it's because the ISP in charge of the last mile screwed up and not because of anything we could prevent.

I'm pretty sure that the router in the Met Lounge in CHI has been replaced.

 

[Anderson]

It was working fine on my way west back in March. When I was coming back east, it wouldn't pass any data through so I went upstairs.

 

[manchacrr]

Although not an Amtrak signal, the station in Hammond, LA (HMD) has wifi. It is called "Hammond Free Wireless" and comes from the Hammond Chamber of Commerce, also located in the station building.