Cognitive Resonance

So, I came home for Reading Week on Friday 3rd November with GNER. I almost always take their direct Aberdeen-London HST service from Leuchars to Peterborough, as it’s both fast and doesn’t involve a change and wait in Edinburgh (9.20, 11.20, and 4.16ish daily from Leuchars). Originally, when Wifi started being fitted to their electric fleet as part of the “Mallard” refurbishment, GNER did not mention anything about fitting it into the diesels… however, this summer, they announced that they were both ahead of schedule and would be fitting it to the HSTs.

I’ve blogged about GNER’s Wifi service previously, before I had ever had the chance to use it. That chance came last week, and I signed up for 24 hours usage at £9.95 (much better value than £7.95 for up to 2 hours). My thoughts? Well… it was certainly a novel experience browsing the web at 120mph!

First impressions – well, it wasn’t very fast. I wouldn’t even consider trying to download Service Pack 2 through it! I didn’t conduct any speed tests (perhaps next time), but I imagine at best that it wasn’t more than 3 or 4 times dial-up speeds (~150Kbit/sec, perhaps). I am not sure whether the speed has been capped per client, or whether it was simply a large number of people using the service on my train – there were certainly lots of laptops open. At times, it was rather slow – certainly comparable to dial-up. This somewhat limits its usefulness, as Web 2.0 apps demand rather more bandwidth than simple HTML. However, it was still possible to use Gmail and GCal reasonably effectively. and MSN/GAIM worked quite happily. There were occasional dropouts, as well, and not in the places – like tunnels – one might expect! In the ~4 hours I was using it, I experienced 2 or 3 dropped connections.

Overall, I am fairly impressed – I’d rate the service 8/10 for effectiveness and 6.5/10 for value for money. I think that at the moment, it’s only really worth paying for the Wifi connection on long journeys (mine lasts 5 hours) – shorter periods of time are simply too expensive. However, I am sure the technology will mature further – I also intend to conduct some more tests to find out how fast and reliable the connection actually is. The service does work as advertised, though – and that’s pretty impressive and very useful.

Hint – the best thing to do is travel First Class by booking well in advance online and buying the “GNER First Advance” tickets. The cheapest Standard ticket usually available for my journey is about £22 Single. If you book far enough ahead, you can pick up the cheapest First Advance ticket for £32 Single – £10 more expensive. Now… for 5 hours worth of Wifi, you’d be paying £10 anyhow – and in First class, there are other perks: large, comfortable seats and tables, free snacks and drinks, and a complimentary newspaper. In fact, even without Wifi, you’d make most of your £10 back just from the food and paper! Because First Class also offers free Wifi, it really is an excellent deal – and to that end I’ve booked myself onto those £32 First Advance tickets for coming back at Christmas and returning in the New Year – a total cost of £65, when a regular Saver return with Young Person’s railcard discount is almost £60. Bargain!

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