Wi-Fi Will Return to Trinity Railway Express. Eventually.

Five years ago, the Trinity Railway Express signed a deal with 4G Metro "to provide the nation's first comprehensive wireless broadband solution spanning the entire length of a major public railway." Impressive, right? But by last year, it had become not so impressive. "The contractor wasn't able to generate enough...

By Eric Nicholson

July 13, 2012

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "18855504",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17105533",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105532",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105535",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

Five years ago, the Trinity Railway Express signed a deal with 4G Metro "to provide the nation's first comprehensive wireless broadband solution spanning the entire length of a major public railway."

Impressive, right? But by last year, it had become not so impressive. "The contractor wasn't able to generate enough anticipated revenue from advertising," DART spokesman Morgan Lyons told the Morning News. "Consequently, they haven't been able to maintain it and keep it functioning."

And so the program was ended with the hope that it could be revived during 2012. It's not going to happen quite that soon but, as the TRE Advisory Committee will learn on Monday, it will return. Probably.

"We've been exploring new technologies and have found that they will work," Lyons informed me moments ago. "However, we need funding to fully deploy Wi-Fi on TRE. This is in the proposed FY 13 budget that will be approved in September. If we receive funding we expect it will take about a year to have Wi-Fi on all the TRE trains again."

So 2013. Until then, I hear the Observer's good in print, too.

KEEP THE OBSERVER FREE... Since we started the Dallas Observer, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas, and we'd like to keep it that way. Your membership allows us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls. You can support us by joining as a member for as little as $1.