BOSTON – Local commuter-rail passengers will start getting real-time information on when their trains will arrive by the end of next month, and an expansion of Wi-Fi service is also in the works, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said this week.
The MTBA said it would display the information on the digital message boards at its stations. They will show a countdown until the next arrival, which will be calculated using global-positioning systems installed on the locomotives.
The new alerts launched this week at stations on the Greenbush, Kingston/Plymouth and Middleboro/Lakeville lines, and will expand to the Providence/Stoughton and other remaining lines by mid-February, the MBTA said in a news release.
At stations that have 50 or more parking spaces, including Providence’s, commuters will also be able to tune in to an AM radio station to hear updates on when trains will be arriving, the agency said.
The transit agency also plans to make free wireless Internet service available in all its train cars, expanding a popular service that is already available on some coaches. The installation work will begin this spring, and all 410 coaches in the commuter rail fleet are scheduled to have Wi-Fi service before the end of the summer, the MBTA said.
