All intercity trains fitted with free wifi
 

I just noticed the network on the 0545 Sligo - Dublin train but I tried joining it around Enfield and it didn't work. I can't say I am surprised that it didn't work and Enfield has a very strong 3 mobile signal.

I'll try a couple of more times and see if the issue was just localised. I get a connection but a warning that there is no internet connection so it looks like the wifi is working but the system has no network connection.

It was reported a while back and I encountered it once is that the Wifi may be available but not yet connected to the internet. Was there a WiFi sticker at the end of the carraige?

Most trains out of Heuston has active and workin Wifi

I didn't notice a WiFi sticker when getting on but I wasn't terribly awake so it might have been there. So perhaps the Irish Times article means it will be in place by the end of the week.

At the risk of being a pedant, it's not all the intercity trains if Dublin - Belfast won't be done for another six months. Still good news is good news.

I assume this includes Rosslare/Dublin line !!

according to this yes, but given the ropey 3G coverage along the line not sure how well it will work (there's no 3G at all between Blackrock and Killiney for a start).

its wifi, i imagine, in the same way i have wifi at home thanks to a little gizmo i got from 3. it, of course, isnt any good if the 3G service it is connecting to is NBS rubbish. Since i live about 500m form the Cork mainline I can vouch for how intermittant and rubbish the 3G in north tipp is.

my neighbour got a very big satilitte dish from the NBS which i will have to get, for example.

there is also a general ban on all the fun wifi stuff, like the rte player, because of cost issues.

The train box has modems for O2 and Vodafone and possibly others, it can take up to 8 different sim cards

It combines them together so you should nearly always get some coverage, so for most locations it should beat a usb stick modem

I am sitting in Connolly station on the 1805 to Longford and have just tested it at 1.2 mbps which is not too shabby especially considering that my 3 mobile doesn't work properly in Connolly at all. Connolly issues notwithstanding, I find that 3 works reasonably well on the Sligo line so given that they should get a much strong signal from a proper external antenna I have reasonably high hopes.

The only issue I can see is that it is a mistake to rely on an honour system for people to steer clear of streaming services. As the great Mr Scott said, you can't change the laws of physics. It simply isn't possible to provide a 1mbps stream to 400 people on the one mobile connection so if people start to abuse it, they will mess it up for everyone.

It would be sensible also to block update sites for the more common mobile and desktop operating systems as lot of people have their machines set up to automatically download updates.

+1, especially with iOS 6 due soon :D

So surprise surprise doesn't seem to be any wifi on the Rosslare/Dublin line, it's not a signal issue as it's not even coming up in the list of wifi's available for the whole journey. Can we find out what the story is please?

Wifi should work on all ICR/22k trains nationwide, assuming all are actually fitted as Irish Rail claim. I have a confirmed report of working wifi on a Rosslare Dublin service.

The Blackrock to Killiney section plus Bray Greystones will never have good coverage due geography and even use of satellite would not solve this.

The coverage around Rathdrum is surprisingly good, but Arklow Gorey is poor

GSM-R for DART might be the ultimate solution, with the GSM-R bit being hardwired repeaters (similar to those deployed in subway systems) and then the telcos piggybacking. Question is when the shekels will be scraped together to fund that.

Irish Rail's GSM-R contract does include a data option

The trick is to charge the phone companies for deploying antennae on railway property. They won't charge any extra per minute to their customers, but will get extra revenue as there will be more minutes. Use that rent to off-set he cost of the wi-fi.

similar arrangement going to be done in the Channel Tunnel.

Hi Mark, on all Rosslare trains or just one, it has definitely not been available on any of the journeys I have been on. Can we find out for definite? I have contacted Irish rail myself but no response yet. It's false advertising. I use mobile broadband every day at the moment so I know the sections it should be available, even if the signal is poor it should still come up in a search for wifi signals and it never does.

I'm on the morning down sevice at the moment (9.58 ex Dun Laoghaire, carriage 22209) and can confirm that while there is wifi, the router isn't handing out IP addresses, so you just end up with a 169 address, so not much use really. I'm seeing two access points, same channel so I presume one ap in each end.

Indeed you hit the nail on the head - FALSE ADVERTISING.

Currently the 13:36 to Rosslare is a 4 piece 29000. Not sure about the evening services but I'd assume they are also 29k operated?

I mean seriously, is anyone else not ****** off that Wexford/Rosslare still has Commuter trains today?

In order for this route to grow, we need every service Intercity standard with the Wi Fi facility on board ( regardless of bad coverage in some spots)

So is it only the new Intercity trains that have wifi then? The 05:35 out of Rosslare is a 29k and two out of the three back down to Wexford in the evening are 29k's too (16:37 & 17:36).

And, YES, I am very ****** off that we still have these commuter trains but no one cares except us idiots on it each day! I would at least like to get to the bottom of this wifi issue.

All ICR/22k services are meant to have wifi, as I posted I have a confirmed report from a passenger that they have used wifi on an ICR service between Rosslare and Dublin

Irish Rail's wording is 'intercity trains' and doesn't state all trains on a specific route are fitted. So if its a 29k (some of which actually have wifi too) it falls outside the description published.

Based on past experience and feedback from the ASAI (plus the wifi is free) no complaint would be upheld

It is on all intercity branded trains (the vehicles, not the services) at the moment. It will be added to Enterprise, Commuter & DART branded trains.

At this stage I have given up on it and gone back to my phone - it is completely unreliable. On at least one train on the Sligo line it does't work at all - the network is there but neither my laptop, ipad or phone can connect to it and I can't see the login page. When it does work, it is glitchy and its failure modes are very bad - you see error pages from a Squid proxy,

Basically, I get a better service off my phone (three) so I'll stick with that. For commuters and anybody travelling for business, this sort of service is useless if isn't reliable. There is no point in turning up for a train expecting to get a couple of hours work done and then discovering that the service isn't working. If you have to back it up you might as well just use your backup.

I understand that the service is highly dependent on the quality of the phone network and there are large stretches of the Sligo line with no coverage such as between Mullingar and Killucan but if my phone gets a signal, then this system should be able to get a signal. It isn't even as if it is heavily used on the early morning service - most of the long-haulers are asleep on this train.

But it is excellent value at the price :-)

well, i can certifiy that whenever i have tried to use the wifi on the cork-dublin line its usually rubbish. in fact three times i have just closed the laptop and gazed out the window instead to calm down after the experiance.

Seems the 29k's on the Rosslare line now have wi-fi, is this a sign they are not going anytime soon?

The whole IR fleet will have wifi by end of 2012, not sure if that timeline applies to Belfast services.

The entire 29k fleet should be fitted at this stage. Not formally advertised but it may work

DART fleet is next up for WIFI and I have seen a few units with the 3G antenna units fitted

Have any regular travellers derived any benefit whatsoever from this service? I have given it a whirl a few times and it vaguely works if there is hardly anybody on the train. But once the train gets more that a quarter full, it is back to the phone. I have spoken to a couple of others and they have had the same experience.

Basically this service is a complete waste of money. They might actually be better off charging a couple of euro for it as then at least it would be some use to those who pay for it.

What kind of money would this infrastructure have cost to install? Is it possible that they could have funded the services that have been cancelled in the new timetable with this sort of cash?

Have given up on the onboard Wi-Fi, too slow to be of any practical use, 3G almost invariably much faster.

I find it better than my phone since Meteor seem to have huge black holes between the M50 and Clonsilla where I can only get EDGE speed, which is useless.

I guess it is good as a backup for some people and tourists on roaming will probably put up with the poor speed.

I have found that it tends to die in the same places as my phone though, so I suspect that on the Sligo line it is relying very heavily on 3 infrastructure.

I recorded a download speed of over 7Mbps one day, so the on train gear is more than capable of offering good service

The problems are poor coverage and heavy usage, looking at 20+ per coach at times

we mentioned before that this is just a piggy back into the mobile broadband service. i have a 3 wifi hotspot thing on my kitchen table does the same, and sometimes falls asunder when a train goes past as everyone on it hops into the vodafone mast in Ballysorrell.

Is there an antenna per coach or per train?

One WIFI box per unit, two antenna's on the roof

It uses Voda/O2/Meteor I think for the backhaul, so in ideal conditions you could get 60mbps to the train, thats theory

Would that mean that a 2*3 set operating a route be able to cope with a much higher volume of users than a 6 peice set?

On a practical basis yes 2*3 would have better internet than a 6 piece, in a congested area, in the middle of nowhere no real difference

Have they blocked streaming yet?