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Amfleet

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Aug 24, 2002
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Southeastern, Massachusetts
Amtrak's Keystone trains between Harrisburg and New York will offer free daily movies, TV programs and Internet access over seat-back video screens in what is believed to be a first for passenger rail service in the United States.
The media service, which will start Oct. 15, will be provided by NRoute Communications of Philadelphia in partnership with Amtrak and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. It initially will be offered on one 50-seat car on each train and expand from there.
For more info click here. B)
 
It sounds great, but its got me concerned. I hope this doesn't turn out to be a financial drain.

I've seen similar situations with rail parts vendors in the past. They will supply the components for free, but replacement parts and repair costs are outrageous!!!

Miami's Metrorail had one married pair updated with a new braking system for free in 1984. Westinghouse (Wabco) rewired the cars for the new computers, installed the computers, and tested the cars for free. Hoping Miami would revamp the cars, the cost was $25,000 per pair. Unfortunately, Miami has on local transit tax and could not afford the retrofit. Now, they are stuck with a set of cars, which have no spare parts for future malfunctions. Everytime it breaks, the cars are down while the circuit boards are sent out for repair.
 
Well PennDOT is saying they will pay for it, but I see what you mean about maitanence. The Amfleet coaches this system gets installed into are going to need new wiring, seats, and a place to put the "central control" box (as I call it). The article said that the car will have 50 seats, so I'm geussing it will be a modified Amcafe. On another note, does anyone know what happend to the "Yahoo" cars operating on the Metroliner , Hiwatha, and Capitol trains? :)
 
They actually ended up on the Metroliners, but I think the medea is just so confused with the kind of service is offered in the Northeast they said Acela Regional. Tommorow I'll check my Rail Travel News magazine because I know the train #s were listed there.
 
The Yahoo car on the Capitols is still around as I see it every couple of weeks or so. However, I have never seen one of the IPAC's they were supposed to allow people to Yahoo with. I asked the lounge attendant about them and he gave me this look as though I was from outer space (the Yahoo car is a lounge car). Although I have not seen the car in a couple of weeks I'll ask about it on the train later today.
 
I much rather like the idea of having an audio/video/internet system at each coach seat than in the Lounge car. Once a passenger sits down in one of those seat it's gong to be pretty hard to get him/her off at their stop.
 
You can find them at www.railtravelnews.com It is more of a newsletter format type of magazine. Each issue is about 20 pages long in a 5 1/2" by 8 1/2" format. There are plenty of news articles, tripreorts, and opinion reports relating to US and Canada rail travel. There are photos but they're in black and white. You can e-mail for a free issue to see if you like it. :)
 
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