NJ Transit may begin offering wireless Internet on trains

“The provision of wireless Internet service would be a welcome amenity for our customers, enabling those who wish to remain connected and productive during their commute to do so continuously,” NJ Transit executive director James Weinstein said in the statement.

NJ Transit expects to award the contract by the end of the year, though the form of the contract has not been determined. “Whether or not there’s a charge for the amenity remains to be determined,” an NJ Transit spokesman said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian on Wednesday, noting that one possibility is that “Wi-Fi could be offered to customers free of charge after they watch an ad.”

The announcement comes amid tight budgets for NJ Transit, which increased ticket prices by 25 percent in spring 2010 while paring its schedule of routes. The cost of wireless service will “most likely be handled separately from base ticket fares,” the spokesman added.

Reactions to the possibility of wireless access were mixed. As someone who says she has gotten used to “spending a lot of time at the train station,” Kelsey McNeely GS ’09 said that “it’d be great to have Internet while we’re waiting, and on the train too.”

But Spencer Jones ’12 said he did not see much need for the new service, explaining, “I generally read on the train; I don’t bring electronics.” But, he added, “it’d be nice if I was going to the airport, maybe not to the city. So [on] holidays, maybe, I could see myself having my laptop with me.”

Jonathan Erlichman ’12, who was sitting next to Jones on the Dinky on Wednesday afternoon, said he is not likely to take advantage of the service either. “If there’s anything I needed the Internet for, I could probably just use my phone,” he explained. “Anything else I can do without the Internet on my laptop.”

Other changes underway

In another recent initiative, NJ Transit launched a 90-day quiet commute pilot program on Sept. 7, transforming the first and last cars on select Northeast Corridor trains into quiet commute cars on weekdays. Under the initiative, passengers who sit in those cars must avoid using cell phones and disable sound on personal electronics to avoid disturbing other customers.

Closer to campus, a recent proposal by Princeton Borough and Princeton Township may lead to the Dinky’s replacement with a bus rapid transit system, which would operate more frequently. That proposal has led to controversy within the local community; the Princeton Regional Planning Board is scheduled to vote on it tonight.

NJ Transit is the largest statewide public transportation system in the country, servicing New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia. It makes more than 895,000 trips every weekday.

—Staff writer Jonathan Dec contributed reporting.