Irish Rail now charging for Wi-Fi

[Colm Moore]

No mention of method of purchase or billing.

http://irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Wi-Fi trial on selected Cork-Dublin Intercity services by Corporate Communications

Friday 25th June
07:00 Heuston Cork
10:30 Cork Heuston
14:00 Heuston Cork
17:30 Cork Heuston

Saturday 26th June
15:00 Heuston Cork
18:30 Cork Heuston

Sunday 27th June
13:00 Heuston Cork
16:30 Cork Heuston
21:00 Heuston Cork

Monday 28th June
08:00 Mallow Cork
09:30 Cork Heuston
13:00 Heuston Cork
16:30 Cork Heuston
21:00 Heuston Cork

Prices as and from Thursday 24th June:
€1.50 - 1 hour
€2.00 - 2 hours
€3.00 - 3 hours


Availability may be subject to change without notice

Iarnród Éireann has announced that wi-fi trials are now underway on selected Dublin-Cork Intercity services.

The trial follows an assessment of technical aspects of a wi-fi service on the route, with strong coverage levels across the Dublin Cork line.

Initially, free wi-fi is available, and partners in the trial, Fleet Connect, will also offer web access to customers at a variety of price points, allowing Iarnród Éireann to assess the likely customer uptake.

A spokesperson for Iarnród Éireann said “we are looking forward to this exciting initiative, to establish the uptake from customers for the wi-fi services, and to see the impact on the rail travel experience. We are hoping the option to avail of on train internet connectivity for all customers – from those checking social networking sites and e-mail to business customers – will prove popular, and lead to a full introduction of wi-fi on Dublin/Cork, and its expansion to other routes – Intercity, DART and Commuter. We would intend going to tender for a supplier partner to undertake this.”

The initial trial will continue for six months on one train set, which will be rotated through scheduled services. Rail bosses are already receiving enquiries on expansion of the facility. “Many customers are already travelling with us because rail travel offers the scope to use travel time productively. Wi-fi obviously broadens such scope dramatically.”

The train-bound system has been designed and installed by Dublin-based FleetConnect, who has also supplied other Irish transport firms with on-board Wi-Fi. “The system provides up to eight concurrent connections using mobile broadband networks from O2, Vodafone, and 3,” said Patrick Cotter, Managing Director at FleetConnect. “During the journey the Moovbox’s patented SureWAN technology will intelligently choose the best networks to use based on availability, and where possible aggregate those networks to provide a bigger ‘pipe’ to the train.”

From our initial testing Iarnród Éireann passengers will be able to achieve up to 3.5mbs download which will give them the ability to access the Internet to check their email, surf the web, play games and connect to their corporate network. The system is available on the full train set for everyone to use once they have a Wi-Fi enabled device such as a Laptop, I – Phone or smart phone.”

[Mark Gleeson]

Its part two of the trial, won't be popular. But there needs to be a business case to pay for the wifi.

There is a half way house, where a certain level of free time will be granted and beyond that it will be charged for. But that a discussion for later

[ACustomer]

"Free" WiFi, if it attracts extra customers (estecially Premium or 1st Class), does not need an explicit user charge to justify it. It's a bit like a mirror-image of the tha car-parking charges where the net revenue to IE could well be negative if you take the change in customer numbers into account.

Difficult to measure, but one should not ignore the principle.

[Mark Gleeson]

Its a condition of the agreement with the provider of the equipment that there is a paid element to assess the sensitivity to pricing.

Its all up for discussion, its cheap by standards of what I've experienced. A model which allows a limited time or volume quota for free but charges for heavy use is probably the fairest charging model.

[markpb]

Originally Posted by ACustomer

"Free" WiFi, if it attracts extra customers (estecially Premium or 1st Class), does not need an explicit user charge to justify it.

Once again, Irish Rail have completely missed the point. Most of the major IC bus operators now provide free Wifi. I'm sure there are technical reasons why wifi is harder to provide on trains but ultimately, Irish Rail have to compete with bus companies. If they can't compete on price, can barely compete on time and (in my experience on Aircoach to Belfast and BE to other places) can't compete on comfort, what exactly do they think is their appeal?

[Mark Gleeson]

Of course it should be free, but this is a trial and the provider of the equipment is not being paid by Irish Rail from what we know

Other railway administrations do charge, GNER in the UK used to charge but removed the charge once they have recouped the investment. This is sensitivity analysis.

We have discussed this charge with Irish Rail and it looks unlikely to be long term its just a trial element and its likely impact is known. Since this is a trial it all could come to a halt in 3 months time depending on the business assessment

[comcor]

They could make it free for 1st class passengers, but paid for by the rest.

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by comcor

They could make it free for 1st class passengers, but paid for by the rest.

The on train equipment allows for that setup

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Tuesday 29th June
06:30 Cork Heuston
10:00 Heuston Cork
13:30 Cork Heuston
17:00 Heuston Cork
20:30 Cork Heuston

Wednesday 30th June
07:00 Heuston Cork
10:30 Cork Heuston
14:00 Heuston Cork
17:30 Cork Heuston

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Wi-Fi trial on selected Cork-Dublin Intercity services by Corporate Communications

Friday 2nd July
07:30 Cork Heuston
11:00 Heuston Cork
14:30 Cork Heuston
18:00 Heuston Cork

[Colm Moore]

http://irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Wi-Fi trial on selected Cork-Dublin Intercity services by Corporate Communications

Wednesday 7th July

06:30 Cork Heuston
10:00 Heuston Cork
13:30 Cork Heuston
17:00 Heuston Cork
20:30 Cork Heuston

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Wi-Fi trial on selected Cork-Dublin Intercity services by Corporate Communications

Friday 9th July
07:30 Cork Heuston
11:00 Heuston Cork
14:30 Cork Heuston
18:00 Heuston Cork

Saturday 10th July
05:05 Cork Heuston
09:00 Heuston Cork
12:30 Cork Heuston
16:00 Heuston Cork

Sunday 11th July
12:30 Cork Heuston
16:00 Heuston Cork
19:30 Cork Heuston

[Colm Moore]

http://irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Wi-Fi trial on selected Cork-Dublin Intercity services by Corporate Communications

No Wi-Fi services 12th July

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Wi-Fi trial on selected Cork-Dublin Intercity services by Corporate Communications

Wi-fi services on Thursday 15th July:

06:30 Cork Heuston
10:00 Heuston Cork
13:30 Cork Heuston
17:00 Heuston Cork
20:30 Cork Heuston

[Colm Moore]

http://irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Wi-Fi trial on selected Cork-Dublin Intercity services by Corporate Communications

Wi-fi services on Friday 16th July:

07:00 Heuston Cork
10:30 Cork Heuston
14:00 Heuston Cork
17:30 Cork Heuston

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Wi-Fi trial on selected Cork-Dublin Intercity services by Corporate Communications

Wi-fi services on Friday 23rd July:
05:05 Cork Heuston
09:00 Heuston Cork
12:30 Cork Heuston
16:00 Heuston Cork

Wi-fi services on Saturday 24th July:
07:30 Cork Heuston
11:00 Heuston Cork
14:30 Cork Heuston
18:00 Heuston Cork

Wi-fi services on Sunday 25th July:
12:30 Cork Heuston
16:00 Heuston Cork
19:30 Cork Heuston

Wi-fi services on Monday 26th July:
16:00 Heuston Cork

Prices:
€1.50 - 1 hour
€2.00 - 2 hours
€3.00 - 3 hours

[dowlingm]

Will the IE service be available in stations? VIA Rail's is, and it would be a good way to snag the business traveller if s/he gets there early and is looking at a 30-40 min wait before boarding, with the same login being good when connected to the ontrain router. The station backhaul could be DSL and thus use cheaper gear than the ontrain stuff.

[Colm Moore]

Several stations, certainly Connolly and Heuston, have eircom internet kiosks. It says its €6/hour, but was only charging me €4/hour in Connolly. Alternatively there is an internet café across the road from Connolly.

Not great, but its something.

[dowlingm]

I'm sure there's an alternative at Heuston and perhaps there's a franchise issue where eircom have been granted exclusivity, but in the VIA example WiFi is available in most if not all stations in the main corridor, so a passenger waiting for a connection at Portarlington for Cork say wouldn't have to leave the station area. It's the seamlessness of the ontrain/offtrain service which is helpful because one promotes the other.

[Colm Moore]

Actually, eircom use their phoneboxes on the street as antennae, it would be useful to have some sort of link up, but yes, having it relatively seemless would be useful.

http://www.irishrail.ie/news_centre/news.asp?action=view&news_id=700

Wi-Fi trial on selected Cork-Dublin Intercity services by Corporate Communications

Tuesday 27th July

07:30 Cork Heuston
11:00 Heuston Cork
14:30 Cork Heuston
18:00 Heuston Cork