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BART, Caltrain set timetable to equip rail systems with Wi-Fi

BART is in negotiations with a vendor to install Wi-Fi in the transit system’s 46 stations and aboard all of its 775 new cars, with hopes of having a deal by the summer, with Caltrain set to have Wi-Fi on its new trains by 2022.

March 13, 2018
BART, Caltrain set timetable to equip rail systems with Wi-Fi

With Caltrain’s conversion from diesel to electric under construction, the system is installing the technology that will be needed to provide Wi-Fi.

Eugene Zelenko

1 min to read


With Caltrain’s conversion from diesel to electric under construction, the system is installing the technology that will be needed to provide Wi-Fi. Eugene Zelenko

SAN FRANCISCO — With riders clamoring for Wi-Fi service on Caltrain and BART trains for several years, the agencies are now in the process of adding the technology, but it could take three years on BART and four on Caltrain, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

BART is in negotiations with a vendor to install Wi-Fi in the transit system’s 46 stations and aboard all of its 775 new cars, with hopes of having a deal by the summer. Once the deal is official, BART plans on adding Wi-Fi to stations first, then to its railcars. The agency’s “Fleet of the Future” cars, which are set to arrive by 2022, will include Wi-Fi.

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Meanwhile, with Caltrain’s conversion from diesel to electric under construction, the system is installing the technology that will be needed to provide Wi-Fi. Caltrain is on schedule to start running electric trains in 2022, according to the report. For the full story, click here.


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