Someday they’ll have wi-fi on the trains themselves. A man can dream…
One of the more frustrating parts about my commute is the black hole of service that occurs during the 10 minutes each direction that the train is departing or arriving Grand Central Terminal. Given my commute’s 45 minutes, it takes effectively 1/4 of the time I could use to be productive, and leads me to rarely break out the laptop.
The wireless carriers thankfully agree it’s a problem, and have contracted Ericsson to build out a solution that will bring wi-fi and wireless service not just to Grand Central (which has historically been problematic for me, although how you could hear people in there I’m not actually sure) as well as the Park Ave. tunnel, through which the Metro-North trains enter and exit the terminal.
The best part is that, because the carriers are paying for the right to add this service, the MTA will actually pick up some revenue in the equation. It won’t be much, but anything helps at a time when they’ll likely be assuming even more debt in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
The only drawback is the people who don’t know how to control their voices and use the vestibules to chat will just have more time to do so now; if they could restrict it to just data it’d be awesome, but frankly I’ll take what I can get.
SOURCES: The Gothamist, Second Ave. Sagas
It’s crazy that this hasn’t happened already, but still, it’s awesome – I hate that blackout point as well.