HARRISBURG, Pa. — It’s not exactly high-speed mobile Internet access, but a Pennsylvania company is about to conduct tests of a system that will give Amtrak rail passengers something that emulates interactive television in their seats, according to a report from WirelessWeek.com.
A 36-seat cafe car on Amtrak’s Keystone line, between Harrisburg, Pa., and New York City will host the year-long trial beginning next month.
The service, created by Philadelphia-based NRoute Communications, will provide several channels of video to seat-back touchscreens as well as online shopping and e-mail access.
NRoute calls its technology a “mobile cable system.” It is based on technology company founder Carlos Garcia originally worked on for military applications and is aimed primarily at ground-based mass transit systems like Amtrak and commercial bus operators.
According to company President Bob Lisowski, the service actually simulates a live, high-bandwidth connection to the outside world with a combination of technologies that provide a broad pipe to the train at stations and a narrower one elsewhere.
“We set off with the notion that in order to provide a cost effective solution, we couldn’t depend on connections 100 percent of the time,” says Lisowski. Instead the system uses “broadband local connections, basically 802.11 type stuff, whenever the vehicle is in the vicinity of a local point of presence.”
In the case of the Amtrak trial, that means train stations along the Keystone route.
“That’s how we manage the large data transfers for video files and things of that nature,” said Lisowski. “That’s dumped from the local point of presence to a central server on the car and while the vehicle is in motion we’re planning to use 1XRTT cellular networks for text updates, e-mail traffic and things like that.”
The result, Lisowski says is “a simulated environment that looks like real-time connectivity but isn’t always connected.” The onboard server can store up to 40 hours of video, allowing that environment to appear very robust. However it makes things trickier for online services that need an outside connection, even if only a low bandwidth one, on demand. Because of these constraints, the service focuses more on cached video that can be delivered on demand instead of on the interactive side. Lisowski says the trial will have Internet access, but that NRoute “won’t brag” about its speed.
The service offers low-budget interactivity in other ways as well. Using GPS to locate the vehicle, the system can tailor its advertising to the area the bus or train is approaching. For example, Lisowski explains, in the Amtrak trial, “as you approach Philadelphia, you’ll get more of a Philadelphia flavor in the advertising and if you head to New York you’ll start to see a lot more Broadway plays and local restaurants and hotels show up.”
The service also appears transparent to vehicle operators. NRoute plans to support itself primarily on advertising revenues rather than charging operators to install the service on their vehicles, at least at first. Lisowski suggests the company may look at operator fees down the road, as well as some premium services like movies on demand that would charge passengers.
For the moment though, the system is financially neutral to everyone but NRoute. That was especially important to Amtrak which is struggling simply to remain in operation. The carrier is clearly in no position to be investing in experimental passenger entertainment technology. In this case the hardware installation was funded by a $155,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PENNDOT). NRoute is funding the service with advertising fees, and Amtrak gets a small revenue sharing arrangement.
For Amtrak and PENNDOT, the question is whether adding broadband service to trains will help increase ridership and lighten the load on other transportation systems. That’s unclear, as in deed is Amtrak’s very survival. Ridership in much of the country has been in decline for years. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, overall Amtrak ridership declined 3.79 percent from June 2001 to June 2002.
However, the Northeast Corridor has historically been Amtrak’s busiest region and ridership there has bucked the nationwide trend. It was boosted by the introduction of Acela fast rail service in 2000 and by the decline in air travel following Sept. 11.
Regardless of whether broadband connectivity on trains or buses can influence travel decisions, access to those passengers is valued by advertisers. Ad supported video is already in place in those markets, with airplanes and buses frequently using onboard VCRs to play canned content for passengers. NRoute’s technology can replace those onboard VCRs and tapes with a system that is simpler for carriers, can be operated from a central network facility, and allows more interactivity for users. As it evolves, it could also help provide a scalable broadband channel into passenger vehicles.