Wi-Fi Update & OBS Improvement report

[afigg]

Amtrak posted a On-Board Service Improvement Plan document on their website recently. The biggest news in it is that Wi-Fi will be implemented to the following trains this fall:

October, 2011 - Northeast Regionals, Carolinian, Empire Service, Ethan Allan Express, Keystone Service, Springfield Shuttle, and the Vermonter. In short, all the predominantly or entirely Amfleet 1 equipped Eastern trains.

November, 2011 - The California services: Capitol Corridor, Pacific Surfliner, San Joaquin

Late 2011 - Auto Train Lounge cars

For the rest of the trains, it simply states: "Trains and service not listed above will Wi-Fi capabilities reliant on future funding for this project".

E-ticketing is expected to be launched system wide in February, 2012.

The OBS improvement plan has parts and bits in it that could lead to some rather snarky comments because much of it one would hope would have been done through the years anyway and not have needed for Amtrak to pressured to do so by Congress.

-The Customer Service Excellence Program with employees to be coached to be nice and friendly to customers.

-The Restroom Task Force. Yes, it turns out that passengers don't like filthy or non-working restrooms. There is now a task force on the case!

-Improving Window Clarity. Yes, passengers don't like spotted and streaky windows even if they have been technically washed.

-Food: "For example, Amtrak hired a vendor to provide freshly made salads and sandwiches on the Acela Express service. These items have generated additional revenue and are being expanded to Northeast Regional service." Ok, this begs the question what was the previous Amtrak vendor providing before? 3 day old salads with barely edible iceberg lettuce?

The report can be found at http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServer?blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobkey=id&blobwhere=1249231260800&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadername1=Content-disposition&blobheadervalue1=attachment;filename=Amtrak_PRIIA_Section_222_Report.pdf

 

[Acela150]

Thanks for posting this! It's finally good to see a time frame for wifi!

 

[Mackensen]

As a frequent rider on the Michigan trains I'd say rolling out POS for the cafe cars is huge. According to the report this was implemented on (some) California trains in FY 2010. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Trogdor]

As a frequent rider on the Michigan trains I'd say rolling out POS for the cafe cars is huge. According to the report this was implemented on (some) California trains in FY 2010. Anyone have any experience with this?

The LSA scans the item, and you pay. It's like any other store with barcode scanners.

I almost want to say that it's in use on the Cascades as well, but I can't specifically remember if it was or not.

 

[Mackensen]

As a frequent rider on the Michigan trains I'd say rolling out POS for the cafe cars is huge. According to the report this was implemented on (some) California trains in FY 2010. Anyone have any experience with this?

The LSA scans the item, and you pay. It's like any other store with barcode scanners.

I almost want to say that it's in use on the Cascades as well, but I can't specifically remember if it was or not.

Right, I was mainly wondering how it affected throughput and open hours.

 

[Trogdor]

Right, I was mainly wondering how it affected throughput and open hours.

Open hours shouldn't change that much.

Throughput is still mainly limited by the capacity of the microwaves, plus the fact that half the people don't know what they want by the time they get to the counter.

Another difference on the Surfliners though is that they have a setup similar to the cafeteria style of the Superliner II lounge, where the passenger gets most of the items him/herself and just puts it on the counter for the LSA to scan.

 

[rrdude]

Inconceivable that they actually choose scanners.........Wow. Just not the right application in my view. I was involved with two different POS projects with Amtrak years back. One with NCR and one with Micros.

In both cases, I argued vociferously against scanners, hand-held, wands, flat-bed, or any other kind. It's just a huge waste of time to have to hand your item over to the LSA, he/she scans it, and then hands it back. The cafe car menu is small enough, that is was easy enuff to put all the items on a flat micro-motion keyboard, or a touchscreen, then the LSA simply looks at the item, and rings it up. They never have to move it to the scanner.

Either way, I sure as hell hope Amtrak gets it right this time, Lord knows they've tried several options over the years, in different business groups and different regions, and all have failed.

The economies of time to be brought to the LSA alone are HUGE, and even more for the dining car crew. They should go with HAND HELD units in the diner, then the servers would never even have to go back to the middle of the car to place the order, oh well, one can dream.

DISCLOSURE: I work for the company that makes that particular Hand-Held s/w.

 

[afigg]

Right, I was mainly wondering how it affected throughput and open hours.

Open hours shouldn't change that much.

Throughput is still mainly limited by the capacity of the microwaves, plus the fact that half the people don't know what they want by the time they get to the counter.

I have been stuck in very slow moving lines in the Acela and NE Regional café cars. I would expect that point of sale scanning will improve throughput a little, but most of the time is spent by the attendant getting the food & beverages, heating stuff up, and so on. And, yes, waiting on people to decide what they want to order as they reach the counter even if they have been standing in line for 10 minutes with the menu right there to read. hboy: The café cars may stay open longer with less paper work for the attendant - maybe. The benefit to Amtrak will be more accurate inventory and sales tracking and less time spent tabulating paperwork & cutting costs. Add in increased sales due to better food, Amtrak might lose less money on providing food services. Probably enough to pay for the cost of the POS scanner or keyed entry system. Jeez, mid to late 1990s technology in the 2nd decade of the 21st century. Amazing.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Inconceivable that they actually choose scanners.........Wow. Just not the right application in my view. I was involved with two different POS projects with Amtrak years back. One with NCR and one with Micros.

In both cases, I argued vociferously against scanners, hand-held, wands, flat-bed, or any other kind. It's just a huge waste of time to have to hand your item over to the LSA, he/she scans it, and then hands it back. The cafe car menu is small enough, that is was easy enuff to put all the items on a flat micro-motion keyboard, or a touchscreen, then the LSA simply looks at the item, and rings it up. They never have to move it to the scanner.

Either way, I sure as hell hope Amtrak gets it right this time, Lord knows they've tried several options over the years, in different business groups and different regions, and all have failed.

The economies of time to be brought to the LSA alone are HUGE, and even more for the dining car crew. They should go with HAND HELD units in the diner, then the servers would never even have to go back to the middle of the car to place the order, oh well, one can dream.

DISCLOSURE: I work for the company that makes that particular Hand-Held s/w.

McD's uses a hand-held device in the drive-thru line during peak times. Sometimes they'll have 2 people out there taking the orders.

 

[afigg]

About the Wi-Fi roll-out to the Amfleet I cars, is that Amtrak should - if they are not doing so - keep going and add Wi-Fi gear to the Amfleet II cars. The cars are close enough in design that I would expect the equipment installation and connection to be the same. If the Keystone trains have Wi-Fi, but the Pennsylvanian does not; the Ethan Allen has Wi-Fi, but not the Adirondack, that is going to confuse and frustrate some passengers. Get Wi-Fi added to the Amfleet II cars, so the eastern single level trains all have Wi-Fi. Easier to explain that arrangement while stating the Superliner and Heritage car trains are next in line to get Wi-Fi.

 

[City of Miami]

My recent experience on existent WiFi:

The Parlour Cars on the Coast Starlight have intermittent WiFi - mostly the first few hours, say to Portland, out of Seattle, and then a few hours before LA. Nothing in between - and I checked many times.

The WiFi on train 510, Cascade from SEA to BEL was exemplary.

 

[Big Iron]

I'm intrigued with the customer service surveys and new customer service requirements. Client satisfaction surveys is definitely a growth industry. We use similar surveys where I work. Very detailed and specific to a location or even a person. Hard to hide from the results. Unfortunately some of the supervisors use this information to flog the employee and ruin morale.

 

[Steve4031]

There are two from the texas eagle that should be flogged. The document states that complaints are tracked by crew. I wish there was a way of doing an online survey after each trip. I would fill It out each trip

 

[sportbiker]

While it's encouraging to learn of all the work being done to improve OBS, it's sad to realize it literally took an act of Congress to make it happen.

 

[Big Iron]

There are two from the texas eagle that should be flogged. The document states that complaints are tracked by crew. I wish there was a way of doing an online survey after each trip. I would fill It out each trip

This initiative to improve pax experience should certainly lead to more frequent surveys, likely by phone. Where I work the results of the surveys factor 1/3 into my performance goals that determine continued employment, raises etc. There was nothing in the Amtrak document that indicated that there was any financial or employment impact on the specific on board employees. Hopefully there is. If so your experiences should improve.

 

[afigg]

My recent experience on existent WiFi:

The Parlour Cars on the Coast Starlight have intermittent WiFi - mostly the first few hours, say to Portland, out of Seattle, and then a few hours before LA. Nothing in between - and I checked many times.

The WiFi on train 510, Cascade from SEA to BEL was exemplary.

The WiFi coverage gaps will be the biggest problem with rolling out WiFi to the LD and even many corridor trains. People using their own 3G/4G connection will see the bars drop or go to no signal and get frustrated with their service provider, but will understand they are in a lousy coverage area. Amtrak customers using the WiFi will get upset when the connection stalls out and blame Amtrak. Even though Amtrak is using the same 3G/4G system as the individuals. Although the Amtrak Wi-Fi system will have advantages with the antenna on the top of the outside of the car and able to access multiple service providers.

People have complained about slow speeds and poor net access in Connecticut on the Acela. I would expect the coverage on the Carolinian and Regionals south of DC and the Empire corridor to be quite spotty in places. Amtrak should provide a predicted coverage map when they roll out the expanded Wi-Fi so people will be prepared for the poor or no coverage areas.

 

[bretton88]

I love the freshly made salad remark. However, most likely the previous vendor was providing no salads at all.

 

[Anderson]

Ah, I missed this (and I did try to look up both "wireless" and "Wi-Fi" on the search function and came up dry on this thread). One thing Amtrak might want to consider with known problem areas would be to asterisk the ads and whatnot and not guarantee connections on certain segments/guarantee wireless only in some areas.

As to the hand-held idea, I like that a lot. Honestly, if you could link that to a screen/monitor/touchpad of some kind in the kitchen (perhaps put in the "grill" area of the diner/grills, and on a portion of wall in other diners) to display/help with orders, that would probably handle things pretty well. I'd think they could set the whole thing up for around $50-60k (a low-end touchpad and an order-taking hand-held would seem to cover things, and either two touchpads or a pad and a handheld would seem to be pretty cheap these days) for the whole system of dining cars...and it might well reduce the staffing needs in a diner ever-so-slightly (I'm thinking maybe reducing the staffing for a full Superliner diner by one).

What I'm probably happiest about is improving the food on the NE Regional services...but that has more to do with the fact that I wasn't happy with the selections there before. This should make food on the way up to DC more enjoyable (though on the way back, the SM still has my vote).

 

[Trogdor]

You wouldn't save any staffing (not even on a Superliner train) by converting the dining car to electronic devices. Each employee has several tasks, and taking orders on little paper checks is but a small part of the task (and takes very little time). The electronic devices would allow for better inventory management, order tracking, possibly replacing the sleeper passengers signing the checks with some kind of reservation/room lookup (which might wind up taking more time, not less, who knows?), but replacing an employee, it ain't gonna do.

If staff gets cut, it will be because of budgetary reasons, not because a little handheld device made the employee redundant.