Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 1938387

WiFi Rail and the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) this week announced a 20-year agreement to provide Wi-Fi Internet access on all BART trains.

While the service has been free thus far during an initial demonstration period, according to the SF Chronicle's Rachel Gordon, "The company will start charging for use when it completes the next phase of the project, which will include the Transbay Tube and all the subway stations in San Francisco and downtown Oakland... Once fully complete, subscribers will be charged about $30 a month, $9 a day, $6 for two hours and $300 for a year's subscription."

"The company uses a kind of leaky coax, a method of turning a stretch of wire into an antenna, to provide continuous high-speed coverage in tunnels, which is a neat trick," writes Wi-Fi Net News' Glenn Fleishman. "They claim the consistent ability to reach 15 Mbps upstream and downstream."

More here from Engadget ... more here from the SF Examiner ... and the press release is here.