Freebie Friday: More Free Wifi on Trains

Three cheers for Amtrak! It announced this week that it will be expanding its free Wifi program, previously only available on Acela trains and the Pacific-Cascades lines. With this move, some 60% of the rail lines passengers will be able to connect.
The routes that will now have Wifi are:

• The Empire Service (New York-Albany-Buffalo)
• Northeast Regional (Boston to Virginia)
• Keystone Service (New York-Philadelphia-Harrisburg)
• Carolinian (New York-Raleigh/Cary, NC)
• Downeaster (Boston-Portland, ME)
• Ethan Allen Express (New York-Rutland, VT)
• Vermonter (Washington-St. Albans)
• The New Haven-Springfield shuttle
• Adirondack (New York-Montreal)
• Maple Leaf (New York-Toronto)
• Palmetto (New York-Savannah, GA)
• Pennsylvanian (New York-Philadelphia-Pittsburgh)

On those last four routes, the Wifi will only be available in certain cars (due to technical constraints) so get to the station early to get into the right car. They'll be marked by stickers on the windows.

Photo by Gene Bowker

In addition to Wifi, Amtrak is hoping to offer faster 4G speeds in the near future.

Amtrak further announced that it will be expanding Wifi In California by the end of the year. That will increase the percentage of passengers able to update their Facebook pages on the train to 75%.

Just a few more reasons to ditch the car and plane in favor of the train in the coming months. Green, pleasant and now connected--let's all take ride the rails!