All Aboard!

Over the past few weeks I've done a fair share of traveling locally. We've made a few weekend jaunts to Philadelphia by car, a drive up to the Finger Lakes in upstate NY, and even up to the Boston area for the wedding of a dear friend of ours. More recently, I've made a trip to our nation's capital, Washington DC to attend the Citi Open tennis tournament. For this, I decided to ride the rails to Philly and hop in a car with my good friend who was joining me for the activity. On the way home, I thought to myself...

Our train system is actually quite nice, though nothing compared to the best rail systems out there in Japan, China, or France (Europe, in general). However, it's certainly more comfortable and cleaner than those of India. In recent times, there have been plenty of issues plaguing the train systems, particularly in NY/NJ/CT. But like all systems, I'm convinced that this one just needs better maintenance, stricter guidelines, and timely communication to ensure order.

I took for granted our train networks here in the United States, but I've come to appreciate them more after having ridden many others around the world. If you need some help getting started, take a peek at the man in Seat61. He's my go-to when I'm looking for a crash course in train travel in a particular locale.

For those of you who haven't had the experience, Amtrak and the localized train networks are waiting for you to embark on your next journey. ALL ABOARD!

Internet-less Underground

NYC's intricate subterranean rail system has been lacking something for a long time. For a city at the forefront of development, our subway lacks what other major cities already have... Wi-Fi and cellphone service.

Why?

Is it because the wealthy of NYC don't even make use of this form of transportation? The rich all have the luxury to ride above-ground, and all taxis have live content. Do they not believe in investing in the people "below" them?

Is it because there are too many potential users that the bandwidth would be eaten up and cause slow transmissions?

Is it because the current infrastructure is unable to accommodate new technology?

Do antenna lack the ability to transmit signal below ground? How do they do it in the Lincoln Tunnel?

Or does the cost outweigh the benefit?

I know the MTA is making progress with the help of Google and Transit Wireless by providing Wi-Fi in some of the stations nowadays, but is that really enough for the tech-savy city? Shouldn't it be available on all the subway cars?

They say all 277 underground stations will have Wi-Fi by 2017... but shouldn't we be beyond this by that time? What will be the latest and greatest technology in 2017? Will our subways once again become outdated and trail modern civilization? Shouldn't we be thinking about how to stay leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else?

After-all, isn't this the greatest city in the world?