Great Western Coffee Shop

Free wi-fi to help rail commuters stay connected
From:Department for Transport, HM Treasury, Claire Perry MP and The Rt Hon Danny Alexander MP
First published:11 February 2015

Rail passengers to benefit from on-board wi-fi across England and Wales.

Rail passengers will benefit from free wi-fi on trains across England and Wales from 2017, Rail Minister Claire Perry announced today (11 February 2015).

Train operators are being asked to set how they will meet the commitment to provide this important service for passengers. All train operators bidding for new franchises and direct award agreements will have to include this specification in their bid.

Where there is no new franchise agreement due in the next 2 years, almost ^50 million of funding will be released from the Department for Transport to ensure wi-fi is available on selected services from 2017. The operators in this group are:

Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN)
Southeastern
Chiltern
Arriva Trains Wales.

...

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said:

"As someone who regularly travels from the north of Scotland around the country, I appreciate the value of fast, cheap internet connections on trains for both leisure and business travellers. That^s why the government is earmarking around ^50 million to provide free wi-fi on trains; this and our other franchising improvements mean that nearly three-quarters of rail journeys will be made on trains with wi-fi provision."

The department has challenged rail industry operators to begin installing equipment as soon as possible to deliver wi-fi by 2017.

The operators will now work with the department to develop detailed proposals identifying the most appropriate services and routes to benefit. Funding will be awarded subject to satisfactory proposals being received from TSGN, Southeastern, Chiltern, and Arriva Trains Wales.

Some operators have already installed equipment to provide improved mobile coverage on-board their trains, or are in the process of doing so. By targeting the investment at franchises that would otherwise have no immediate plans to introduce wi-fi, the government is ensuring that as many passengers as possible benefit.

The ^47.8 million funding is money that Network Rail has been required to return to the government for missing punctuality targets set by the Office of Rail Regulation. It is the first time such money has been reinvested into improvements targeted at passengers.

Out of the ^53.1 million total penalty against Network Rail, ^5.3 million has been allocated to the Scottish government, in line with the proportion of the penalty paid by Network Rail for late train running in Scotland.

Where there is no new franchise agreement due in the next 2 years ...

Strewth! Who supplies that latter connection? Guess its a fibre connection?

A Cellphone Connection using an inbuilt 3G Modem in a Laptop...

I've used the WiFi with FGW HSTs and I am extremely impressed. Train WiFi for once that has been done properly...

What's the future with on train WiFi?

Currently trains can use either linking to a cell network or a satellite uplink. Is the future with those options which will continue to improve over time as new technology increases speeds and coverage? Or will we see the railways go with the in house solution of using spare bandwith on the railway specific GSM-R network? Are there inherent dangers in opening up parts of the GSM-R spectrum to public access?

The work will complement an upgrade currently taking place on Network Rail^s trackside infrastructure to ensure that a good signal is available up and down the busiest rail routes.

Can Confirm that Wi-Fi fitment on the 16X fleet has now commenced.

Partnering
NRT needs to deliver 4G mobile data services for future train operational needs, ORBIS trackside applications and passenger Wi-fi. Our strategy is to partner with one or more partners, using their spectrum and our physical masts and backhaul assets to build this network at least cost to Network Rail. This in turn will drive value added service provision and help meet strategic themes.

Market Segmentation Strategy
NRT currently delivers services via Layer 0 in the diagram below ^ Using the existing low capacity FTN network and 3rd party services from BT and Level 3 to run the railway. Layer 1A is the first step in extending the network to support future rail operational needs. FTNx ^ a new high speed network overlaid on FTN ^ will support data hungry services (SCADA, TM, ROCs, Corporate Voice and DATA) and high definition CCTV while allowing NRT to migrate from 3rd party suppliers and bring down provision costs. Using FTNx, layer 1B services will be extended to the rail family along the rail corridor ^ connecting TOC stations, depots and switching centres to more efficiently run the railway. Consideration will be given to full utilise strategic partnerships Layers 2 and 3 will extend FTNx and mobile services beyond the rail corridor to run our rail family corporate functions and have potential to support CNI networks such as the British Transport Police. Finally, Layer 4 services will be considered proving traditional wholesale and enterprise data services and supporting UK PLC through rural broadband initiatives etc.

I'm still looking for hard data about this plan to provide on-board Wifi and mobile phone services via a radio link to a kind of base station that NR will install on GSM-R masts. The fibre network that would connect those boxes to the world has mostly been built already. I can't find anything to tell me how far the plan has got. That may be partly because I do not know what it is called (my friend Google is so very literal-minded).
...
Has anyone else seen anything at all concrete? I've even tried looking for technical articles on how LTE would be used in this application - on the grounds it should be at least a partly-open standard - but found nothing about the UK.

ScotRail Trains Test up to 300Mbps “Superfast” On-Board Wi-Fi Service
Monday, September 18th, 2017

Scottish train operator ScotRail has partnered up with Cisco, CGI, Network Rail Telecoms and Wittos to conduct a Proof of Concept trial to enable “super-fast” WiFi on trains (Project SWIFT), which could offer data speeds of up to 300Mbps (allegedly the “fastest in-train Wi-Fi service in the world“).
...
The intention behind Project SWIFT, which is being funded by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and Innovate UK, is to provide a viable alternative that can offer “internet speeds on the go” of up to 300Mbps (Megabits per second). Currently, those travelling by train between Scotland’s two biggest cities can apparently only “access less than 10% of that capability” (note: c.30Mbps still sounds pretty good for a train but that capacity has to be shared between many users).

At present the new technology has only been implemented on a full-scale train at a test track in Stratford-upon-Avon, although it will now see a “limited duration roll-out” on one of the current fleet of ScotRail trains that operate services between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The project will utilise existing trackside fibre optic cable to backhaul data from trackside masts. The masts will use unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum to connect trains to the fibre, with a lossless session handover between masts as low as 2ms (milliseconds). Both existing and newly installed masts will be used along the Edinburgh-Glasgow route to ensure that consistent coverage can be trialled along the line, regardless of tunnels and cuttings.
...
The proof of concept trial will commence later this year, and run until the end of March 2018. After that a decision will be made about whether or not to roll-out the service to more trains, not only in Scotland but also other parts of the United Kingdom.

Project SWIFT hopes to highlight how high-speed in-carriage connectivity will improve the experience for passengers and help train operators provide better, more reliable and profitable services. The project will also investigate what becomes possible when you add data and insight to connections.

Project SWIFT Open Innovation Challenge

The Project SWIFT Open Innovation Challenge is an exciting part of the Innovate UK & RSSB project enabling super-fast Wi-Fi on trains. The objective is to enhance passenger experience in rail travel and Project SWIFT is looking for SMEs to join the ride.

As the first project of its kind, the Project SWIFT project will utilise existing trackside fibre to enable Wi-Fi backhaul, which will require advanced service management and session handover at a minimal 2 milliseconds. Besides aiming to provide 300MB of consistent connectivity, which has to date only been demonstrated in lab environments, Project SWIFT will launch the scotrail.1to1.link, a WiFi connected app store providing real-time open APIs powered by Wittos Connected Intelligence platform. The 1to1.link platform opens opportunities to digitally connect and engage with onboard passengers in a whole new way.

The Project SWIFT Open Innovation Challenge is looking for developers to build applications to leverage the 1to1.link open API platform to address three problem statements in the areas of destination marketing, disruption management & wildcard. You will be able to access a unique set of real-time APIs and engage with a cross-section of stakeholders during an 8-week virtual incubator.

This proof of concept project is a collaboration between consortium partners: ScotRail, Cisco, Level 3 Communications, CGI, Wittos, Intersection Analytics.

Sign up now for access to the Project SWIFT Open Innovation Challenge API and sample data

Virgin West Coast now provide free wifi I understand as long as you book through their own website

Actually, their wifivid far more stable and unrestricted than GWRs is.

... said after 15Mb of data it would be throttled ...Not a very generous amount and I don't know how much it throttled it back after hitting that.

New funding for antenna prototype will help avoid internet blackouts on train journeys.
Published 24 July 2020   

•    Transport Secretary announces £200,000 towards research into developing an innovative antenna prototype for rail gantries, helping to make internet blackouts on the commute a thing of the past
•    government-backed research has found that updating existing infrastructure is an affordable solution to improving mobile connectivity for passengers
•    telecomms service providers urged to work with Network Rail to come up with innovative designs for trial phase of project

Very silly passing thought................

Why don't they use the 25KV lines in the same way that domestic premises use Powerline Adapters on the 240V lines round the home ?

Powerline runs through fixed wiring.  Trying to run an interference free permanent connection between the pantograph and OLE wiring would be impossible.  Every time you see a spark from a pantograph that would be a dropped connection and a major burst of interference.  You would also lose the connection in neutral sections.

On a wider issue there would be significant radio noise emitted from the wiring.  This noise is one of the reasons that National Grid were opposed when they wanted to use their cables for internet connectivity.

That's why I said a "very silly" thought.....................but having said that I have seen sillier things enacted on the railways   ;D

Network Rail Said to Seek Partners for $1.9 Billion Fiber Plan

The company that manages Britain?s railroads is looking for partners to help fund a fiber-optic network that would improve wireless connections for train passengers, people familiar with the matter said.

State-backed Network Rail Ltd. is working with an adviser to help conduct a strategic review and gauge investor interest in the project, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

Patchy mobile signals and low bandwidth are a constant problem for U.K. rail users already exasperated by some of Europe?s least reliable train services. The government is pushing communications providers to improve nationwide broadband speeds.

Network Rail is seeking investors to contribute as much as 1.5 billion pounds ($1.9 billion), which will include a mix of new lines and upgrades of existing infrastructure, one of the people said.

A formal process will take place in the second half of the year, they said, while cautioning that no final decisions have been made and the government may resolve not to bring in new investors.

?Our telecoms network greatly assists the running of the railway and we routinely review its potential to deliver future benefits to passengers and the railway,? the company said in an emailed statement.

Network Rail?s new and upgraded fiber lines will pave the way for fifth-generation wireless services that will offer passengers more powerful data and video and more reliable voice connections. It?s one of several fiber broadband projects aimed at meeting Prime Minister Boris Johnson?s goal of ?gigabit-capable? internet speeds across the country by 2025.

Network Rail already has almost 20,000 kilometers (12,400 miles) of fiber-optic cable providing communications for the national railway network, according to its website. It looked at selling its telecom assets four years ago, reportedly holding talks with companies like BT Group Plc and Virgin Media, but shelved the plans.