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BART Trains to get WiFi but it Ain’t Happening Anytime Soon …
(25 May 2018, BWCS Staff)The long-promised arrival of WiFi on BART trains on the West Coast of the USA has finally moved a step closer to reality. However, long-suffering travellers have told the San Jose Mercury News that they are not counting on a solution arriving imminently.
The board of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is due to approve an exclusive negotiating agreement with Mobilitie Management, LLC, today. Under the terms of the deal, the new company will be allowed to provide WiFi at BART stations and on trains. The agreement also includes cell services for Muni Metro subways.
According to the local Bay Area press, BART and its new supplier will now have six months to iron out a contract. However, a spokesperson for the transport operator, Alicia Trost, quoted in the Mercury News, said she expects a contract to be in place by the summer.
After a contract is signed, BART believes it will be another year to 18 months before the system is up and running at stations and then a further 18 months to two years before train passengers can access WiFi in the carriages. According to Trost and the News, BART’s new trains, which just started carrying passengers earlier this year, come equipped with WiFi onboard but will need to be retrofitted with radios that transmit at the correct frequency. On top of this, Mobilitie will have to install poles along the tracks to relay the signal.
Nor will WiFi be available on the old trains, Trost said. BART is replacing its current fleet of 669 train cars with 775 new ones, an effort that is expected to be completed in 2022. Until then, there may still be a few of the older train cars in use.
Of course, BART was due to have WiFi on its trains many years ago. In 2009 the operator signed a 20 year deal with local company WiFi Rail to supply on-board WiFi to its trains. However the two companies could not agree on how to progress the project.
At the time, BART said in a statement that it was ending what it called a "trial" of the WiFi service. The agency added that the service had only ever been available in downtown areas of San Francisco and Oakland and in only 5% of its fleet. For its part, WiFi Rail accused BART of reneging on its exclusive contract and took legal action.
The original agreement had been for WiFi Rail to provide passenger WiFi services across the entire 104 miles of BART's regional rail system. Back then, WiFi Rail had promised that the service would not cost the agency a cent, but would be funded by passenger subscriptions and advertising.
At the time of the split, WiFi Rail CEO Cooper Lee told the San Francisco Gate newspaper that his company had installed US$7 million worth of equipment in 55 train cars on the BART system. He added that BART officials were unable or unwilling to meet with his company to discuss ways to resolve connectivity issues. The supplier had hoped to use a mixture of its own trackside solution and on-board Cisco kit.
Meanwhile, back in the Bay, Caltrain riders can also expect to wait a few years for WiFi on board their services. In April, the state government announced it would give the commuter rail company US$164.5 million to help replace three-quarters of its diesel trains with electric ones. Those new trains, which are expected to start carrying passengers in 2022, will be outfitted with wireless capabilities, said Caltrain spokesman Dan Lieberman.
The problems of intermittent mobile coverage, proposed trackside solutions and improving WiFi on Trains services will be discussed at next month’s WiFi on Trains Conference in London on June 6th and 7th.
For more information on this year’s event please see www.Traincomms2018.com or contact Ross.Parsons@BWCS.com .
This year's Train Communications System Conference is sponsored by Icomera, Nomad Digital, Fluidmesh, 21Net, RADWIN and BAI Communications.
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