On Monday, WMATA launched a 45-day pilot of public Wi-Fi in stations downtown. The program will cover Union Station, L’Enfant Plaza, Archives, Gallery Place, Judiciary Square, and Metro Center.
While better wireless connectivity is always helpful for riders, it’s interesting that WMATA has chosen to integrate the pilot with real-time train arrival information. Upon signing into the network, users are directed to a homepage that offers the exact locations of the next trains arriving at the station.
As the public information displays at each platform can often be hard to see in crowds, stuck scrolling through unrelated updates, or marred with confusing blank spaces, the real-time info on the log-in screen should help give riders a better idea of where their train really is. Even if this kind of information is not especially new to the D.C. Metro (see: MetroHero and it’s train-arrival algorithm), it does help that every single person who logs on sees this option. Amenities like free Wi-Fi shouldn’t come at the cost of the essentials like train frequencies, but the fact that WMATA has taken the step to connect it to its train data solidifies its utility and the potential for riders to make more predictable, informed trips.
Additionally, Martine Powers of the Washington Post notes that the Wi-Fi pilot comes as a bit of a safety measure, too, after WMATA received criticism from the Federal Transit Administration for lacking ways that riders could contact 911 during an emergency. It’s unclear right now if the wireless extends into the tunnel (edit: I can confirm it does not), but WMATA has struck a deal with phone providers to add phone coverage into the tunnels by 2020.
During the pilot, WMATA is actively soliciting feedback from riders on the Wi-Fi, and ultimately hopes to bring coverage to all stations.
Photo: Commuters on their phones in a Metro station (Sam Kittner for Mobility Lab, www.kittner.com). Middle, photo of the train arrival screen, courtesy of WMATA.