Railways: South West
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department made of the potential impact of onboard connectivity and mobile signal coverage on productivity and passenger experience on long-distance rail services in the South West.
Answered by Keir Mather
The Department is committed to improving on-train Wi-Fi for passengers, including on the Great Western Railways route, where poor connectivity remains an issue. That is why we have secured £57 million as part of the recent Spending Review to improve on train Wi-Fi using low earth orbit satellite connectivity on our mainline trains, which will include services on the Great Western Railways route. Officials have also been working with the Peninsula Taskforce and Motion Applied on the trial Peninsula Taskforce funded to test low earth orbit and 5G connectivity. The tests on the train itself have evidently been successful. Other operators, such as London North Eastern Railways, have also shown that low earth orbit technology provides high speeds – up to 200 megabits per second, enabling passengers to receive a much better mobile connection through the on-train Wi-Fi than they receive today.
Network Rail's Project Reach will also address mobile connectivity in 57 key mainline tunnels, which include ones on the Great Western Railways route, and this will complement the low earth orbit solution.
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