Did you play the Powerball during the recent billion dollar frenzy? I know I sure did; heck, we all did, and we lived for a few short days dreaming of what we would do with the winnings. One of the things I know I would do with my winnings is to buy New Jersey Transit Wi-Fi for all its train cars. All the local bodegas and convenience stores in Manhattan advertise “Wi-Fi available here!” as if while we were buying milk, or the morning paper, or a Powerball ticket, we would dare risk not being connected for those few short moments. In my small town of Glen Spey we have a convenience store and a post office; that’s it. Guess what? Pete’s, the “have it all convenience store” of this tiny hamlet has Wi-Fi; you can use it while you pump your gas. They also advertise it proudly on a big sign in the front of the store.

Surprisingly, there is no Wi-Fi service in the train cars of my commute along the Port Jervis line. One would wonder why, with all the commuters sitting hours on the train, there would be no Wi-Fi service here—how inconvenient to the riders! Transit fares recently went up 9%, the fifth increase since 2002. This was followed by service cuts in order to meet the fiscal 2016 budget, which the legislature and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie approved. The good news is that New Jersey Transit proudly announced there would be selected Wi-Fi service in selected stations up and down the various rail lines. This basically means the large stations on the Port Jervis line of Secaucus and Penn Station, not the train cars. This does little to help the student doing homework on the train or the commuter trying to catch up on a little work on the commute in.

Cell phone service along the ride is very spotty to say the least. Even the “can you hear me now” network has its subscribers plagued with dropped calls, even in very populated areas of the trip. During emergencies at home, riders heading home are often found asking other riders if they have service, hoping another cell carrier can reach the other end of the line at home. Conductors are not immune to this problem either, as the company-issued device works just as poorly.

Amtrak has Wi-Fi, the Dollar buses to Boston and Washington have Wi-Fi, New York City taxi cabs have Wi-Fi, most airlines have Wi-Fi. So why is it there is no Wi-Fi on New Jersey Transit trains? This seems to be a mystery. Most of the commuters answering the surveys request this improvement. Heck, even the conductors complain about the same thing; they tell me the satellites are already in place. The easy answer is that the issue is bogged down with politics. Christie is deaf to problems at home while he covers the country trying to beat Trump. When the road surface of the Palisades Parkway was so torn up it was dangerous to drive, it took a drive from the DOT Commissioner to realize just how bad it was. Only then was action taken. Maybe Christie needs to ride the train more.

Since I can’t wait, I do what many commuters do on the Port Jervis line: carry two phones, with a different carrier on each. Granted, one is a work phone—I could not afford the cost of the two carriers. Word quickly spreads of other passengers like myself, and the conductors come to rely on us. Just recently, during a bad rain storm with downed trees, Jim, the conductor, asked to borrow my phone—neither the radio or his phones could contact the terminal to report downed trees. I like to think that, because I was able to supply service when needed, I helped all the commuters that night get home.