Orangeway station design

Not only will travelers wanting or needing to get from Universal City in Los Angeles to Woodland Hills in Los Angeles (or to selected locations between these points) soon have a new option for doing so, the Orange Line branch of Metro Rail, but they may be able to get some work done on the way by connecting their laptop computers to Wi-Fi networks generated within the 60 foot-long, CNG-powered , articulated buses in which they'll be riding.

In two recent exclusive Modern Transportation World interviews, the first with Deputy Executive Officer and Orange Line project manager at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Roger Dames, and the second with Cliff Henke, Director of External Relations and spokesperson for North American Bus Industries, Inc. (NABI), the Woodland Hills-based company that is building the Orange Line buses, these officials talked about the possible addition to the existing high-tech features already associated with these vehicles of on-board Wi-Fi access as an added inducement to get travelers out of their cars and into mass transit.

Roger Dames, of MTA, said he was not aware of "any immediate plans" to put Wi-Fi in the Orange Line Stations or onboard the buses, "basically due to funding limitations." He said that "probably…if we were ever to do something like that [MTA] would hire a specialty contractor to retro-fit vehicles to do things of that nature."

Cliff Henke, at NABI, asked about "retro-fitting the bus and the line to provide Wi-Fi or other wireless service within the bus…to provide Wi-Fi service for people within the bus so they can get some work done on their laptop computers," said that was "an interesting, fascinating question and I know that it's has been under discussion by several people within Los Angeles as well as others in the industry for precisely the reasons that you're talking about. That is to say, let's get the busy executive out of his BMW and on transit and let him work onboard."

Asked the status of such discussions, the NABI spokesperson said that they are in the "serious idea stage."

Cliff Henke said, "Let's face it; the technology is not that difficult. It's basically an extra dimension of things that already go on in the bus. That is to say, there is wireless monitoring available on vehicles in the industry now. There is communications with the bus' depot. There are communications with the bus in case of emergency. We do have onboard video surveillance not only on these buses but on the rest of the buses that have been ordered in Los Angeles."

To listen to these and other comments from Cliff Henke about turning Orange Line buses into "rolling Starbucks," click here.

To listen to these recent interviews with Roger Dames at MTA and Cliff Henke at NABI in their entireties, click here.