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Even if your No. 72 bus from Ogden happens to arrive late in Salt Lake City, your e-mails will get to work on time.

The Utah Transit Authority and a tech company have rigged four commuter coaches for wireless Internet access, an experiment UTA hopes will lure more people out of their cars and onto the Wi-Fi Express.

The service has been available for a week now on four buses leaving the Ogden Intermodal Center between 6:42 and 7:16 a.m. Return buses leave 400 South and State Street in Salt Lake City between 4:28 and 4:58 p.m.

Layton resident Barron Kelley discovered the perk Friday morning. Friday evening, he logged into his online University of Phoenix project management class he's taking for his MBA degree.

"I can actually do homework and go into a chat room with my class team," said Kelley, who works for Questar.

Todd Steadman of Clinton was logged into four different software-development servers Friday evening. A software engineer for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Steadman was troubleshooting a missing database for the LDS.org Web site.

After he and his on-site co-workers fixed the failed processing job, Steadman tapped into his home computer to check out the domestic scene. "I have 16-year-old daughters just getting into dating," he said. "The other day I saw one logging on, so I touched base."

Wi-Fi fans know that the main goal is to find an access point with enough juice to maintain a connection. Such access points are now common features at hotels and coffee houses.

But hotels and coffee houses don't motor up the freeway.

In building the rolling Internet cafe (minus the food and coffee), UTA and its partner, Parvus Corp. of Salt Lake City, attached routers to the buses that channel the Sprint wireless network along Interstate 15.

Clair Fiet, UTA chief technology officer, explains it this way: An antenna captures the Sprint signal which goes to the mobile router, kind of a traffic cop in a box that manages thousands of electronic pathways. The router turns the connection into a Wi-Fi access point exclusive to each of the four wired-up coaches.

While the equipment is adequately armored to withstand jerky movements, it's possible that a laptop user could lose her signal momentarily on the ride to work or home. But the computer would only stall, not crash, and resume activity in a matter of seconds.

Because Sprint, Parvus and UTA surveyed the I-15 route and found it good, "we shouldn't have a spot where we drop the signal," Fiet said.

Said Steadman, "My remote router in my office is less reliable."

Steadman said he's pleased to spend more time at work during his hour-long each-way commute, and is spreading the word among his co-workers. "Everyone I've talked to has said, 'Wow.' They've been altering their work schedules to get on the buses," he said.

"Some colleagues of mine take the 73 [express] and they're kind of jealous," added Kelley.

Equipment for each bus cost about $5,000. UTA paid for rigging up two buses and Parvus the other two, Fiet said.

Kyle Brimley, UTA technology deployment project manager, said his agency hopes to capture more riders with the experimental service. About midway through the 60-day pilot program, UTA will survey users about the experience. At the end of the experiment, UTA will evaluate whether it wants to continue or expand the service. If so, it would be put out to bid through normal competitive bidding, Brimley said.

Parvus Director of Business Development Andrew Hunt said his company does business with military and aerospace clients as well as transit organizations, but usually outside the state.

The pilot program, Hunt said, would help Parvus field test a new system before bidding for further Wi-Fi service on buses and commuter rail.