Great Western Coffee Shop

On the 0657 Thatcham to Paddington HST service I noticed none of the VOLO screens in coach D appeared to be on. I believe the service has been scaled down but I seem to remember that as recently as last week you could at least switch the screens on and use free services such as the maps and news.

I've noticed them not working on some sets but fine on others. I assumed to be faults they are not bothering to fix with the impending removal.

Like you I have certainly noticed lots of "off" screens but this morning none of them seemed to be on.

Just curious!

VOLO screens are being removed across the fleet in line with the introduction of Wi-Fi. I travelled on a set which clearly had the screens removed. Give it time and they'll all be gone.

Are they remaining on the sleepers?  Considering there is no wi-fi and no proper plug sockets, I would hope it remains.

Is wifi or plug sockets part of the planned refurb though?

WiFi IS on the sleepers, it was the first thing to be completed.

Plug sockets will be part of the refurb.

+1

I've used it and it works rather well actually:

(http://www.speedtest.net/result/3813745460.png)

That's better than my home wifi!

13.99 /0.77/37

That's great news.  There is nothing on the sleeper pages of the FGW website (or at least I cannot find it), only on the wi-fi section.  Could be worth updating this so people looking specifically at the sleeper know about it.

Not only is the wifi a reasonable speed, it also works between Plymouth and Newton Abbot where the mobile signal is very poor.


The VOLO screens have been removed from the sleepers.

How does wifi on a moving vehicle work? Is it satellite based or is it some sort of radio link?

I've used Brittany Ferries wifi and it is satellite based and very slow as well. I'm not sure how the railway infrastructure works

I haven't worked with network communications via satellites for a couple of decades but remember there being major issues with latency due to the distances involved. So I'm not surprised wifi that links to the net via satellite are  slow - especially where the dish effectively moves in 3 dimensions :)

Works on the 3G/4G mobile signal across networks. So no mobile signal from any network = no wifi either.

Back to the original topic - on my journey back from Cardiff to Reading last night I noted the Volo screens had been removed from the backs of the sears - a circular blanking plate covered the hole in the seat where the cable would have come through.

To container in the luggage rack (which I believed used to hold the electronics to drive the screens) was still there with the coach number on the side but obviously I couldn't see if the workings had been removed.