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First UK On-Train WiFi Service Launches Monday
dave writes "UK train company GNER starts trials of the UK's first on-train wireless Internet access service. Currently only available on limited services and in First Class; if the trial is successful the service will be rolled out across the entire fleet in both Standard and First Class."
Its unfortunate that this is currently only available in one carriage, one would imagine that the expensive bit is the satellite uplink (assuming this is how they do it, although I saw GSM mentioned somewhere), distributing the wireless within the train should be the easy bit.
I'd be interested to know how the expect to get DSL-level bandwith from GSM technology, especially when more than one person will be using the line.
Also, in my experience public WIFI providers tend to charge an arm and a leg for the service. I'm sure the trial is free, but I can't see it remaining that way when the role the service out to "standard class". 1 per email, anyone ?
I have been using the trains in the UK and, after having lived in The Netherlands I can only say I am shocked. In fact, I would say that the worst thing in the UK are the trains.
Arround here (Birmingham) ~40% of the trains have delays bigger than 5 minutes. In the weekend it can be hours, HOURS. During the summer the line from Birmingham to London was cut for maintainence for 3 DAYS IN A ROW. Buses were at least available as an alternative.
And most of the trains are not confortable. Especially the local ones.
And they are the most expensive trains in Europe.
They are even much worse, on average, than the portuguese ones (I am portuguese).
Wonderful country - I love being here, if you take out the so called public transport system.
I am thinking in buying a car, I don't drive for 5 years, no need until now...
Sorry for the rant.
What would be really cool is access to a real-time train map like the controllers see, then you can see the real reason your train just stopped in the middle of no-where for 15 mins with no explination. Also - and i dont think transportation people have really caught on to this fact: things always seem faster when you have a moving progress bar on a screen (it has to move every second). People want to be able to see whats going on and when - thats why people like the count-down displays at bus stops and on the tube.
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To really enjoy this train wifi, we need a LAN Game protocol designed for publically used WiFi locations. This would let people publish a list of which games they might like to play and support connectinons to others. Any LAN-playable game would need some type of plugin that provides information about how to connect to other (i.e., a Chess app would only let one other person connect, an MMORG would define which scenarios different people want to play, etc.) That way the person in car 2 could find a game buddy in car 4 without any prearrangements with that person.
I see only two problems. The first is security. Depending on who programs the protocol, it could end up with exploits. Also, the games might provide a channel for exploits if someone uses a hacked copy of Doom to insinuate themselves into another rider's laptop. The second problem would be playability when the person in car 3 decides to use the 5 hour journey to download the latest Linux distro.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
This is a great step forwards.
People will complain about late or cancelled trains but the fact is that no journey is every fast enough if you're not enjoying yourself, and no journey is too slow if you're having a good time.
The question therefore is: will on-board internet links make life better or worse for travellers? And the answer is obviously "yes".
With a notebook and wifi, even long waits are entirely bearable and can be fun. I'd rather a four-hour train journey with wifi than a two hour flight without.
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