Photo by Adam Fagen.

At long last, you will soon be able to send Snapchat selfies in Metro tunnels. The Post reports that Metro is close to finalizing a deal with four major cellular carriers that will give riders cell service throughout the transit systems tunnels.

If you’re thinking “hey wait, weren’t they supposed to do this years ago?,” you’re not wrong. Metro had signed a contract in 2008 for the carriers—Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile—to wire the tunnels themselves, but the contract was delayed due to a myriad of problems, mostly safety concerns and logistical problems.

But in the new agreement, which the Post says is expected to be announced within the next few weeks, the carriers would provide Metro with tens of millions of dollars to wire the transit system itself, with a target completion of 2020 or sooner.

The push to get this project completed comes after the fatal January 12th smoke incident—in which many passengers were stranded in smoke-filled trains with no cell reception to call for help—and the subsequent pressure from Congress to enhance its safety measures.

If the agreement the Post outlines goes through, wiring in Metro tunnels could start as soon as January. And rather than waiting up to five years for it all to be completed before activating the wiring, parts of Metro’s system could see cell service as soon as the wiring is installed in that particular segment. From the Post:

“When we pull the cables through, as we go up the Red Line in the first segment of this, they can ‘light it up’ as they go along, as they say in the telecom business,” one Metro official said last week, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the deal is not formally in place yet. “So some people will get service much sooner than others. You don’t have to wait until everything’s done.”

Of course, this is Metro we’re talking about, so naturally everyone takes optimistic news like this with a grain of salt, like Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), who, when not trying to mess with D.C.’s marijuana laws, is grilling Metro:

“There’s always a concern,” Mica said. “They have a history of problems with operations and administrating programs. So that gives me pause. But right now, if we can start moving forward, we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and see how it goes.”