BOSTON — In yet another move to make Amtrak train travel convenient and hip, Yahoo and Amtrak today plan to create the first Internet-enabled passenger trains in the United States by placing hand-held computers with Internet access on a smattering of trains nationwide, the Boston Globe reports.
The plan officially begins today on Amtrak’s Acela line between New York and Washington; the Capitol line between Sacramento and San Jose, Calif.; and the Hiawatha line between Chicago and Milwaukee. The Northeast and California trains will have five Compaq Ipaq pocket PCs in the train’s cafe car, all offering free access to the Internet. The Chicago-Milwaukee route will offer four pocket PCs.
Linda Bennett, senior brand manager for Yahoo, said yesterday that there are no plans to bring the traveling technology to Boston. “But the possibility always exists,” she said.
The trial run will last three months and could be extended to six months or more if deemed successful. Yahoo, an Internet company, recently ended a similar trial run that offered Internet access through taxi cabs in New York.
In the train program, Amtrak adds another feature for travel, while Yahoo gets some publicity, including having the Amtrak cafe cars wrapped in the company’s yellow and purple ads.
The Pocket PCs, which are challenging Palm Pilots for a market share of the hand-held computer market, will use a wireless PC card to connect to the Internet, Bennett said. Only one train per run will have the technology, and all the computers will be locked down. “Basically what we try to do with any of these things is capture people’s imaginations,” Bennett said.