Bjorn Bender recently told me that by the end of 2024 he will have travelled 100,000km on trains this year alone – an average of at least 273km a day, or 15 hours of training a week.
The CEO of ticketing firm Rail Europe loves trains so much he makes them into his office, travelling across the mountains of Switzerland, the plains of France and the vineyards of Italy while tapping away at his laptop.
“It is really my office time as I usually commute between Switzerland and Paris. I have my routine, and how I do it, how I train, eat and work,” Bjorn explained to me during one of the rare moments he is not on a train.
Inspired by the German’s deeply cosmopolitan, European approach to combining work and travel, I decided to see if I could do a day’s work on a train from London St Pancras to Marseille – a journey which takes around the same time as an average working day. “If it’s not possible on the beautiful and high-tech Eurostar and TGV, then surely it can’t be done anywhere?” I thought.
My faith in the forward thinking public transport engineers of France was poorly placed, as it turned out. Every 15 minutes throughout my – admittedly otherwise flawless and incredibly comfortable – journey my connection went down, causing half-written stories to disappear into the ether, important messages to go unsent and picture uploads to remain jammed on half-finished. I mashed my Wi-Fi button on and off, repeatedly connecting and disconnecting to no avail.
If the frustration and tension I felt through much of that journey is recognisable, then perhaps you too have been hit by a technological issue which afflicts not just the UK and France, but much of Europe and the world – rubbish Wi-Fi on trains.
In my mind, it should be possible to step onto a train and enjoy unfalteringly quick and steady internet until you alight. Indeed, in many other parts of the world it is. Japan’s Shinkansen, or bullet trains, are not only marvels of engineering but also offer passengers a remarkable Wi-Fi experience, keeping everyone connected as they rocket through the prefectures at 200mph.
“The best on-train Wi-Fi services around the world tend to be in countries where there has been a strong alignment of 4G/5G mobile network rollout strategy with rail transport/decarbonisation strategies. Good examples of this are Germany (DB), Sweden (SJ) and Italy (TrenItalia). Trains in these countries will be connecting at several hundred megabits per second,” explains Peter Kingsland, an expert in train Wi-Fi at Icomera.
After my journey I turned to Peter to find out where in the world does it better than France and the UK, and what can be done about it.
He explained that overloaded trains are part of the problem. As UK trains power their Wi-Fi routers using the same 4G and 5G networks our phones do, they don’t have enough bandwidth for each passenger to have as much as they need. It also means the onboard Wi-Fi drops out when your phone’s own connection does. Losing connection is a regular problem in the UK, where lengthy Victorian tunnels and the “Faraday Cage” effect of the metal infrastructure of train carriages interfere with signal.
Icomera sells a service called SureWAN to train operators which allows their Wi-Fi to jump seamlessly from different mobile network providers, trackside networks and satellite, meaning connection is rarely if ever lost. Peter estimates it would cost £200 million to £300 million to upgrade the Wi-Fi service on UK trains to provide home or office speed internet to everyone.
Some train providers have gotten close to this, with relative newcomer Lumo offering an uncapped Wi-Fi service which is provided by EE, Vodafone and Three. It claims to provide average download speeds of 150Mbps and upload speeds of 70Mbps, and is now considering moving to 5G. Right now Evo-rail is testing super-fast Wi-Fi that could offer speeds of 1Gbps on a section of South Western Railway line between Earlsfield in southwest London and Basingstoke.
Given it seems to be possible to provide good, fast Wi-Fi on trains, the next question is why should it be done, beyond saving me from getting buffered into a state as I sneak off to the south of France? Economically, it seems to make total sense.
The UK rail system received £46 billion of government support since 2020, the Times reports, rendering the £200million a drop in the ocean. The extra ticket revenue for train operators that would likely come from better Wi-Fi onboard would probably cover this. One 2011 pilot found free Wi-Fi on Amtrak trains in California led to around a 2% increase in riders.
Even more compelling is the work of economics Professor Daniel Susskind, from Kings College London, who estimates that the total economic value tied up in time spent on board trains in the UK is around £18 billion a year. For those uninterested in giving up their reading or looking out the window time for the bottom-lines of their companies, this number can be thought of a different way.
Imagine instead that you could shave the time of your journey off your work hours each day by logging-on to and from work, safe in the knowledge the Wi-Fi was steady and fast. For those who do flexible, office work, why not?
Peter continued: “Good onboard Wi-Fi is now a basic expectation of consumers or business travellers who choose the train versus car or plane to make their journey. UK rail ticket revenues are still 20% below pre-Covid levels, so attracting more passengers to rail because they can get online onboard and be productive or entertained during their two-three hour journey is a key unique selling point for trains.”
Over the next five years of Labour government we are likely to see significant changes in this area, with Transport Secretary Louise Haigh “already delivering on radical reforms to fix our country’s broken rail network”. A large part of that involves getting the Passenger Rail Services (Public Ownership) Bill through the House of Commons, which would bring train operators back into public ownership once contracts elapse.
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As – under current contractual terms – it is up to individual train operators to make operational decisions regarding onboard Wi-Fi for passengers, the Government’s power to invest in and fix the problem is somewhat limited until then.
“We’re delivering the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation, to provide better services for passengers. This will include improving Wi-Fi connectivity on our railways and moving towards 5G in due course,” Department for Transports spokesperson told the Mirror.
What the train operators say about their services
The Mirror contacted all the UK train operators to ask what internet services they provide, how comprehensive their network coverage is and what plans they had for the future in this regard. For those that responded, this is what they told us.
GWR
“We offer free WiFi on board all of our services; and at a number of our stations too but restrict streaming on-board. The on-board WiFi will provide access wherever there is network coverage; there may however be some small areas away from conurbations – or a nearby mast – where network coverage is limited. In terms of improvements, we are always looking at ways to improve the services we offer customers – whether that is reviewing contracts of third-party suppliers to ensure we offer the best service for money, or otherwise. No specific improvements planned at present.”
LNER
“Please find information on our website regarding our WiFi facilities, which are free for all of our customers on our trains and at our managed stations, at lner.co.uk/support/on-board-faq/wi-fi.”
Northern Railway
“It’s free to all users for email and websites and non-streaming media. The Wi-fi is powered by our mobile phone companies and operates on the 4G network, coverage is very good in major cities and towns and in more rural areas we have reasonable coverage by using different network providers
“Through network management and work with the mobile providers, the Engineering Onboard Systems Team manage all operational technology on the trains and customer Wi-Fi is high priority ensuring the free Wi-Fi has fair use and available to all.”
TransPenine
“Wi-Fi is available onboard all trains and is free. Overall the network receives good coverage. We use connections to three different mobile networks to power the systems onboard our trains. The TransPennine Express network has numerous tunnels – some of the longest in the country – this of course means that connectivity can drop out for the duration of the journey through the tunnel.
“We’ve worked extensively with our suppliers to improve the performance of the existing systems, with Wi-Fi availability scoring 99% through our Service Quality Report. We’re working with our partners as to how we can improve bandwidth to each customer using the Wi-Fi onboard our trains and also looking at how we can enhance the connectivity in tunnels and rural areas.”
Caledonian Sleeper
“We do offer complimentary wifi onboard and in our Caledonian Sleeper branded station lounges. Coverage wise if broad, although we are challenged by the geography and remoteness of some parts of the west highland line. We are always looking to invest in the overall onboard experience for our guests and will review our wifi provision as part of that.”
Greater Anglia
“Free Wi-Fi is available on all our trains. A vast majority of our network receives good coverage. Some customers may experience a slower connection in more rural areas, however this only affects a small part of our network. There are no plans at present, however we will review it in the future.”
Eurostar
“All Eurostar customers currently enjoy complimentary WiFi onboard, at no extra cost. We do not have specific information to share regarding network coverage at this time. We are continuously exploring ways to enhance the onboard experience for our customers, including WiFi services. We will provide updates on any improvements as soon as they are available.
West Midlands trains
“We offer free Wi-Fi aboard all West Midlands Trains services (operating under the West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway brand names). The system use 3G and 4G signals and the quality of the internet connection varies depending on where customers are and how many people are using the Wi-Fi. We keep the service under review but no particular upgrade plans at present.”
Chiltern Railways
“We have complimentary Wi-Fi available on all Chiltern Railways trains, subject to availability. Availability is dependent on the strength of signal on the network. However, we have good coverage across all of the routes that Chiltern Railways operate on with only small sections where signal is unavailable. Chiltern Railways is currently fitting a 5G Wi-Fi system to our Class 168 trains as part of a refurbishment programme over the next few years.”
