Amtrak attributes ridership growth on Acela Express in large part to free service
Virginia Beach, VA – March 15, 2011 – The GBS Group (GBS), an engineering consulting and technical services firm proudly notes the second year of Operations and Maintenance (O&M) support for the passenger Wi-Fi® service available on Amtrak's flagship Acela Express high-speed trains. GBS led the successful installation and launch effort for Amtrak of the with design, installation, operation, and maintenance services. The free Wi-Fi service – known as AmtrakConnectSM – began in March 2010.
Under the O&M contract, GBS provides staffing, 24/7 help desk support, system performance monitoring and metrics, troubleshooting, documentation and reporting, stocking and managing spare parts inventory, and configuration control.
Amtrak recently announced that ridership has grown for 16 consecutive months, spanning from November 2009 to February 2011, when Amtrak's ridership rose 7.6 percent, marking the national intercity passenger railroad's best February on record. Amtrak attributed the ridership growth – especially in the Boston-New York City-Washington, D.C. corridor – in large measure to the Wi-Fi service on high-speed Acela Express trains. Acela ridership increased 9.7 percent last month.
"We work very hard to meet the growing demands of Amtrak's passengers and Wi-Fi users, and I'm so proud of our team," said Bob Golden, CEO of The GBS Group. "We applied an established O&M process to ensure the onboard system performs reliably." GBS, with specialized expertise in reliability engineering, uses Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) principles to establish an appropriate regiment of both preventative and corrective maintenance procedures. GBS provides additional engineering services to Amtrak and other passenger rail operators, including MARC and New Jersey Transit.
