Alright so how broke Amtrak is and how badly they need more passengers and cash is old and negative news. So how about some good news for train travel? Just a few days ago, it was announced that Amtrak is planning for WiFi on its Acela trains by 2010. This is what their passengers badly need, and hopefully the Northeast's few Acela routes are just the beginning.

2010 may be just around the corner, but frequent Amtrak passengers have been vainly attempting to connect to a network onboard for months now. For instance, when we chugga-chugged our way for fifteen hours (each way) between NY and the Midwest in March. Oh yes, we found an open network or two that moved with our train, but couldn't successfully connect. What's that about? ]]> JetSetCD 2009-11-02T17:14:21-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/2/18/154657/784

Funny – we were just bitching yesterday that instead of investing in a tourist-centric Anaheim-Vegas railway, Washington pols should do something about the miserable/overpriced state of Northeast train travel.

Someone at Amtrak must be reading Jaunted comments, because the train service just announced they're chopping the lowest Acela Express fares a whopping 25 percent, following a large drop in ridership throughout the Northeast corridor. We're not sure if that's because of the recession of BoltBus, but either way, we'll take the discount

For tickets bought at least two weeks ahead of travel dates, New York-to-DC fares on the superfast train are down from $133 to $99, and New York-to-Boston seats drop from $93 to $79. Not exactly competitive with those $1 bus fares, but moving in the right direction!

· Amtrak to trim one-way Acela fares by 25% [Boston.com]
· Lohan and Ronson Evidence Amtrak Ascendancy [Jaunted]
· Amtrak coverage [Jaunted]

Photo: [cliff1066] ]]> BS 2009-02-19T09:35:04-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/