Virginia Railway Express won’t be giving riders wireless Internet connections this spring as initially planned.
Instead, the commuter train service’s chief executive officer said Wednesday that the perk won’t be ready “until late this year or early next year.”
CEO Dale Zehner told riders during an online chat, “It will take longer than I anticipated due to the increased costs.”
Initally, the agency had planned to roll out limited Wi-Fi to the rear two cars of each train. But last month, the agency dropped those plans in favor of a more extensive one that would bring the service to every rail car.
“After we had looked at the possible ways of doing it, I advised the board that if we are going to install Wi-Fi on the trains, that we do it in a way that provides the best connectivity to all riders on the train no matter what car they are in and design the system in a way such that the connectivity is continuous for the entire VRE ride,” Zehner said.
But such connectivity comes with a cost. Initial estimates of the new system put the cost at about $1 million, up from the smaller $50,000 plan.
Zehner said he will come up with a plan by the summer on how the agency will pay for the service.
