Smart Thinking From National Express Trains on Wifi
So for this weekend’s trip to London the chosen form of transport was the train, more specifically the ‘new’ National Express East Coast line. With GNER going bust, the franchise was passed over to National Express and they’ve been promising changes as best they can – although ith the same budget as GNER, and at the mercy of track works and the same problems as GNER I wasn’t sure just how much change they could put in place. Never mind though, as I quite liked GNER – and I liked it a lot more than the times I had to take the Virgin ‘Voyager’ trains.
They;ve made one small change that I really appreciate though. There is free wi-fi throughout the train. Previously this was only avaiable to first class customers – standard class cost something like £20 for the journey. Someone inside National Express decided this was penny pinching (I assume) and they’d get more benefit if it was free throughout the train. So I’m logged on, browsing, twittering and blogging from my 110mph desk. It’s very nice, and I can get through maybe 80% of what I would do sitting at my desk at home (the upload speed for FTP is slower than a bag at Terminal 5, image browsing is slow at best) but it does the job. Would I prefer to swap this over the airline flights? Tricky… but at least I know there is a strong alternative, put it that way.
When you work out the travel cost comparison and parse that against productivity, how would you rate the alternatives? That’s the real test don’t you think?
Finally! I had to pay for WiFi on the Virgin train from London to Edinburgh last time I was on a UK holiday… It was great to have access for the 4 hr run, but it was a bit steep…
And that’s the rub Dennis, because while I probably get a little less work done either side of the fifty minute flight Edinburgh to London (pref. London City) in the lounges, the shorter air hops don’t give me cramp in my leg, and it gives me just enough miles to stay on Platinum Frequent Flyer – which is very useful on my stateside trips.
i suppose the points are the deciding factor, over the stress of having to pass through the security theatre at either end when using the air method.
And most times i have travelled on using Virgin, it has only slightly beaten walking in terms of preference (the new Voyager trains making it suck slightly less, but then i have only travelled off-peak on them)
I used this at the end of last year, on the first day National Express were operating. Free wifi sounds good, but when I was actually trying to work using a VPN, the connection speeds was horrific. No doubt every man and his N95-owning dog were chewing through the traffic. That’s the point ‘free’ becomes worthless, and seeing as the trains are using satellite connections, I’m guessing they’re unlikely to up the bandwidth.
On Thursday I’ll see if things have changed…
Good ol’ Brucey – points make prizes
I used this a couple of years ago and thought I’d give loggin into Second Life a go. I got logged in but found myself under the sea unable to move. I did also contemplate trying to find a flight to the States that offered internet access just to do the same but then realised how sad that was ;-)
Wifi on train to London: FAIL. http://martinlittle.com/thinkthin/2008/04/10/235439.php