ACE Insider

October 11, 2007

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Vasco Station Parking Lot
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Attention all Vasco station passengers!  The City of Livermore has
made great progress in the planning and construction of the new
parking lot at the Vasco Road station. City officials estimate that
the new parking lot will be completed and ready for your vehicles by
the end of October.

Thanks for your patience during this expansion.



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Tree Cutting at San Joaquin Stations
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Please be advised:

In order to allow for enhanced and clear visibility for the security
cameras, the trees at the following parking lots will be trimmed over
the next few weekends. To accomodate, vehicles must be removed from
the parking lots during the specified weekends; any remaining vehicles
in these lots may be towed at owners expense.

Stockton Parking Lots: The weekend of October 13

Lathrop/Manteca: The weekend of October 20

Tracy: The weekend of October 27



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Parking Enforcement at Livermore Garage
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The City of Livermore has asked ACE to remind passengers about the
following parking issues.  Passengers may park their vehicle on level
THREE only; additionally, overnight parking is not allowed at the
garage.  Signs are posted, and the City will now begin enforcing these
regulations.  Anyone not adhering to these regulations may be cited by
the City of Livermore, and vehicles left may be towed at the owners
expense.

Please contact the City of Livermore for questions or concerns.



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Great America Parking
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The City of Santa Clara has put up new signs on the street at Great
America. They will now allow parking again. The only exception is
12:01 AM Wednesday until 07:00 AM Wednesday morning. You will be
ticketed if you park on this day and time.





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Change Your Clocks...But Not Yet
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Daylight Savings Time ends on November 4th this year.



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Free Monthly Pass!
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Attention Monthly pass holders. Want to get a free November 2007
monthly pass? Here’s how!

1) Submit each original monthly ticket from December 2006 to September
2007.
2) Submit a copy of your current October 2007 pass (both front and
back).
3) Fill out a Loyalty Reward Application form and submit with your
tickets. The LRP application form is available from our website. For
your convenience, the link to the application form is provided below.
4) Send in your entry by October 15, 2007. For automatic renewal
passengers, application must be received prior to the 15th to avoid
being charged.

Mail to:

Loyalty Reward Program (LRP)- November 2007
949 E. Channel Street
Stockton, CA 95202

For further details on the Loyalty Reward Program please visit our
website at www.acerail.com

Have any questions or concerns? Call 1-800-411-7245 and ask for the
Ticketing department.




Click here for more information
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?AltamontCommuterExpr/8412f544ff/760c7ef1b0/8135fed6e3

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Searching for a Signal
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About 18 months ago, the Altamont Commuter Express began investing in
a new and cutting edge technology designed to put high speed internet
on each of the ACE trains. Over these last 18 months CTS and Raysat –
the equipment and service providers – have learned a lot about what
does not work and, more importantly, what will work. After the most
recent round of testing, it has become increasingly clear that the
largest “hurdle” is the amount of bandwidth needed to make this work.


Fixing this problem is not as easy as it sounds.

There has been very limited bandwidth available on satellites with a
“look angle” appropriate for Northern California. Further, there has
been a huge increase in price for this already limited commodity. On
the trains, our consultants had to learn about the best way to channel
the WiFi signal throughout each car and keep the signal strong enough
for passenger usage.

There have been additional factors they have had to overcome, such as
the very high temperatures in the ceiling of each train. Those high
temperatures can affect and even damage the equipment the consultants
are using for this project.

WiFi A Challenge Across the Rails

The idea of having Internet access onboard many other California
trains have stalled.

Caltrain has announced that they have rejected several bids to build
out their WiFi service.  The agency could not afford one of the
bidder’s costs, which resulted in a necessary subsidy, and did not
want to deal with the other bidder’s complexity.

The Capitol Corridor has experienced similar disappointments in their
WiFi testing, stating that the initial bidders either pulled out or
offered impractical options.

As you can see, there are many factors and variables that make this
endeavor a challenging project, but one that we have worked hard to
make successful.

Not Giving Up

With all of this in mind here is what ACE and its vendors are planning
to do:

 Swap out the current antennas for the latest version. This
includes changing the internal modems but not the internal WiFi CPE.
 Change service providers. ACE’s new provider will be providing
service on a new satellite with an even better “look angle” and the
amount of bandwidth will be 6X downlink and 4X uplink speeds as the
previous provider. This additional bandwidth is significantly more
than what is actually required.
 Test this out on one train and then move to the three other
trains once this proves successful.

In addition to what we have planned for the next step, there may be
options that we have not considered yet.  It is entirely possible that
solutions to the WiFi woes are more achievable than anyone has
realized thus far.  We admit that we are not technology geniuses, but
we know that we have technology geniuses onboard the ACE trains who
may know how to rectify the challenges that we have faced with this
service.

Do you want to be part of the solution?  I, personally, welcome your
suggestions and ideas. If you believe that you may have a solution in
mind for the pioneering of this unique, one-of-a-kind feature for the
train, please contact me – if your plan works, I may just hire you to
finish the project!

Stacey

wifi@...




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