Economy

NCTD Restores Wi-Fi To Coaster Rail Line Cars

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published June 19, 2013 at 12:12 PM PDT

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

The Coaster coming through Del Mar in this undated file photo.

NCTD Restores Wi-Fi To Coaster Rail Line Cars

Wi-Fi connections on the Coaster light rail line are back, though user discretion is required.

Commuting by train up and down San Diego’s coastline just got more productive.

The free Wi-Fi service that was canceled last December has been restored, allowing passengers to work on laptops or tablets while commuting.

Frances Schnall of the North County Transit District said the agency worked with its provider, T-Mobile, to strengthen and improve the service.

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“We’re providing this free Wi-Fi as a way to check email, to connect to the Internet, catch up on the news,” Schnall said. “It is not designed, nor will it support, heavy usage, so we’re asking people to refrain from downloading video and music and other large files."

Schnall said the agency continues to rely on commuters to regulate their Wi-Fi usage to avoid overloading the system.

North County Transit officials last year said passengers were abusing the service by overloading it, resulting in frustrated passengers who could not get online because other riders were using up all the bandwidth.

But Schnall said towers that service the rail line have been improved and passengers will be connected to the Internet via two 4G modems. The service is available in all 28 Coaster cars.

Schnall said Wi-Fi is not being considered for the Sprinter light rail line from Oceanside to Escondido since that train makes more frequent stops, giving passengers less time between stations to work online.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.