Caltrain board approves funding for on-board wireless internet

By Brigid Gaffikin, Bay City News Service

November 3, 2006

Caltrain commuters might be able to tap into the Internet on their laptops on the way to and from work within a year with the help of a new wireless network infrastructure, an agency spokesman said today.

The Caltrain board of directors on Thursday approved a $1 million allocation toward designing and engineering the system, spokesman Jonah Weinberg said. An additional estimated $2 million to $3 million will be needed to fully implement the service.

"We've had nothing but very enthusiastic response from people who want this service now,'' he said.

Caltrain expects the wireless access could allow commuters to convert commute time to work time and might allow some passengers to spend less time in the office.

The agency tested wireless service on a short stretch of track between Millbrae and Palo Alto in July and hopes it can roll out wireless along all 52 miles of Caltrain track by this time next year, Weinberg said.

"Now they have to take this 14-mile proven concept and engineer it for a 52-mile railway corridor'' before moving on to whatever construction along the line is necessary, Weinberg said.

Engineers working on the system can't just replicate what worked on the Palo Alto-Millbrae stretch. "There may be some geographical challenges, there may be some physical challenges,'' Weinberg explained. And it won't be clear exactly what needs to be done and what needs to be purchased and installed until the design and engineering stage is finished.

Weinberg said that ultimately the service will be available on every car in each train but that initially Caltrain is probably going to equip 25-30 cars for wireless so that a single car in each train has the facility, he said.

Getting wireless set up on one car per train will be faster than waiting for funding to have each and every one of the agency's more than 100 passenger cars fitted to allow wireless access, he said.

Passengers also shouldn't expect a fare increase because of the wireless implementation, and neither will there be a fee for using it, he said.

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