Metro, one of the last bastions of the phone booth, is considering eliminating public pay phones from its train stations. The transit agency has held onto the icons even as phone booths have disappeared from street corners and malls, ending the era of students cramming inside, costume changes a la Clark Kent or anonymous souls dropping a dime.
Now Metro’s 10-year contract with Verizon is slated to expire in March, Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asato said, and no one has responded to a request to fill the void.
“So we’ll be considering all options,” she said.
The agency has asked public groups for input in what getting rid of pay phones would mean for riders. The loss would mean less money for Metro. The contract brings in $1 million annually, Asato said.
But Verizon isn’t interested in continuing to pay out. Public phones need to pay for themselves with about 150 calls per month, Verizon Communications spokesman Harry Mitchell said.
Pay phone revenues have dropped as cell phones have become ubiquitous, and phone companies have scaled back accordingly. Verizon, for example, had 220,000 pay phones nationwide in 2007 but now has about 80,000, Mitchell said.
Recent upgrades to the Metro system’s underground cell phone network have meant that many people don’t need the public phones anymore. Not only can they call home from the train, but they can also check sports scores, e-mail friends and download music.
The Metro system is not fully wired for all cell phone carriers, though. The transit agency is upgrading cell phone reception as part of a three-year deal with Congress to secure $1.5 billion in federal funding over 10 years.
The measure required Metro to have more cell phone service in the 20 busiest stations as of October 2009 and throughout the system by October 2012. But pay phones could be the only call out for those without cell phones or during an emergency.
Metro has had problems with dead zones on emergency radios in its deep tunnels, including an incident when a fire on an escalator caused confusion for riders trying to evacuate.
