(The Canadian Press circulated the following article on November 29.)
TORONTO — Via Rail says it has completed a program to install wireless Internet on all its trains running between Windsor, Ont., and Quebec City.
Via introduced the service earlier this year in first class, and recently added economy class partly to cater to the many students who travel by train along the route, said spokesperson Catherine Kaloutsky.
Unlimited access over a 24-hour period costs $8.95. There are also per-minute and monthly access plans.
“We talk about productive use of your time while you’re travelling, and (web access) is one of the features that business travellers have told us that they enjoy about being able to take the train,” said Kaloutsky.
The Wi-Fi program, completed in November, involved installing satellite dishes, antennas, cables and servers on trains, said Guy Faulkner, Via’s product manager of corridor services.
Wi-Fi is also now available at all Via stations between Windsor and Quebec City.
“We want to move to our second phase, which is building an entertainment program on top of the Wi-Fi application,” said Faulkner.
The railway is talking to potential partners to offer such things as news, movies, syndicated TV shows, games and music. “A lot of the material would reside locally on servers on trains and be distributed throughout the trains wirelessly,” said Faulkner.
Via hopes to introduce a version of Wi-Fi throughout Canada by the end of 2007 or early 2008, said Faulkner. But with limited cellular service along remote routes, access to the Internet would not be in real time except at certain stations.
For example, passengers would be able to write e-mails as they travel and transmit them to an on-board server, which would automatically send them to the Internet once the train arrived at stations, Faulkner said.