Metroliner telephone service article
 

Because of the recent interest in cell phones and railway
communications, the following is posted.

In the 1969 the Penn Central introduced Metroliner premium passenger
train service between NYC and Washington, DC. (It was developed by
the Pennsylvania Railroad and the trains originally wore PRR keystone
logos. They entered service after the Penn Central merger and
continued into Amtrak*.)

A feature of the new trains was onboard telephone service. Passengers
could directly dial outward calls, and 'ashore' subscribers could
telephone the train and have a passenger paged to the phone. The
phones were located in a booth in the lounge car. In 1969, direct
dial from pay phones, especially with Touch Tone, was still a novelty.

The system used a pioneer approach of cellular technology, including
automatic locating of the train for incoming calls.

A Bell Laboratories Record magazine article describes the service
technology. Interesting reading.

http://long-lines.net/tech-equip/mob...9/076-077.html


*Amtrak eventually replaced the original MU cars with refurbished
locomotive hauled cars. Some of the original cars remain in service
as cab cars for Amtrak push pull trains, such as on the route to
Harrisburg. The Metroliner design inspired Amfleet, all built by
Budd.

Metroliner telephone service article
 

On 03/04/2012 19:01, wrote:
Because of the recent interest in cell phones and railway
communications, the following is posted.

In the 1969 the Penn Central introduced Metroliner premium passenger
train service between NYC and Washington, DC. (It was developed by
the Pennsylvania Railroad and the trains originally wore PRR keystone
logos. They entered service after the Penn Central merger and
continued into Amtrak*.)

A feature of the new trains was onboard telephone service. Passengers
could directly dial outward calls, and 'ashore' subscribers could
telephone the train and have a passenger paged to the phone. The
phones were located in a booth in the lounge car. In 1969, direct
dial from pay phones, especially with Touch Tone, was still a novelty.

The system used a pioneer approach of cellular technology, including
automatic locating of the train for incoming calls.

A Bell Laboratories Record magazine article describes the service
technology. Interesting reading.

http://long-lines.net/tech-equip/mob...9/076-077.html


*Amtrak eventually replaced the original MU cars with refurbished
locomotive hauled cars. Some of the original cars remain in service
as cab cars for Amtrak push pull trains, such as on the route to
Harrisburg. The Metroliner design inspired Amfleet, all built by
Budd.

Interesting. Any pictures of the phones themselves?

Metro North Railroad, in New York, had installed phones on their trains,
at least on the New Haven line EMUs in the late '90s, though the
explosion of GSM service has since seen their demise.

Metroliner telephone service article
 

On Apr 3, 5:49*pm, "
wrote:

Interesting. Any pictures of the phones themselves?

The article had a drawing of one. But they looked basically like a
standard single slot coin phone.



Metro North Railroad, in New York, had installed phones on their trains,
at least on the New Haven line EMUs in the late '90s, though the
explosion of GSM service has since seen their demise.

I remember they made a big deal about it when the phones went in, and
I think there was a phone for every two calls of a train, which is a
lot.

If memory serves, they weren't that cheap to use, perhaps $1/minute.

Presumably they contracted with a telephone carrier for the telephone
sets and service. But I don't know who paid for the installation,
which included the appropriate power supply for the phone and an
antenna, plus all connections.

As you mentioned, personal cell phones made the train phones
obsolete. IIRC, it happened fairly quickly, probably before the
installation cost was amortized. I wonder who got stuck with that
expense.

Amtrak also installed similar phones on their trains.

Metroliner telephone service article
 

In article ,
" wrote:

Metro North Railroad, in New York, had installed phones on their trains,
at least on the New Haven line EMUs in the late '90s, though the
explosion of GSM service has since seen their demise.


Same thing here in Oregon and Washington with pay phones in the Cascades
Talgo trains. When the trains were built in the mid-1990s there was
still enough pay phone use for them to install pay phones in the
vestibule areas between the cars. They had a modular phone receptacle
in the side so that if you needed to contact someone with your computer
and modem you could do it, but of course only for short periods as they
didn't want people hogging the phones.

When the trains were rebuilt a few years ago the pay phones were
removed, and today they have WiFi on board.

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