WMATA extends wireless service on Green Line

Rail News Home Passenger Rail 12/10/2019 Rail News: Passenger Rail
Cellular service is available in all underground Metrorail stations.Photo – WMATA

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) late last week announced that wireless service now is available on the entire Green Line and most of the Yellow Line. Service is provided by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

WMATA activated wireless service on Green Line tunnel segments between the Gallery Place and Branch Avenue stations. Now, 80 of 100 miles of tunnel track and the Blue, Green and Orange lines are equipped for cellular and data service, WMATA officials said in a press release.

Three remaining segments — the Red Line from Dupont Circle to White Flint, Yellow line from L'Enfant Plaza to the Potomac River portal and a one-mile Silver Line tunnel in Tysons — are expected to be similarly equipped by June 2020.

A $120 million project in tunnels is funded through WMATA's capital improvement program and maintained by the wireless carriers. The project involves attaching hundreds of miles of cable in the tunnels to support cellular service and installing a new public safety radio system. Cellular, radio, power and fiber optic cables run the length of a tunnel and tie into cellular and radio network equipment in various locations.

Cell service already is available in all underground stations while free public Wi-Fi service is accessible at all 91 Metrorail stations.