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The UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT) has today taken the wrappings off Project Reach, which reflects a public-private partnership that will deploy “ultra fast fibre optic cable” across 1,000 kilometres of major rail lines to help “eliminate mobile signal blackspots” in tunnels on “key rail routes” up and down the country.
At present it’s fair to say that quite a few of Britain’s train services still suffer from patchy mobile (4G and 5G) connectivity, which is often also used to help fuel onboard WiFi connections. Despite this, the Government’s recently published 10 Year Industrial Strategy did pledge £41m to help introduce Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellite connectivity “on all mainline trains” in order to tackle the issue.
The Project Reach announcement appears intended to help complement that effort. The deal will see Network Rail, and telecoms companies, Neos Networks and Freshwave, working together to deliver improved connectivity on the national rail network.
As part of this, Neos Networks will deploy 1,000km of new fibre cable along the East Coast Main Line, parts of the West Coast Main Line and the Great Western Main Line, with an “ambition” to expand beyond 5,000 kilometres in the near future. Meanwhile, Freshwave, which specialises in building multi-operator neutral host and distributed antenna system (DAS) networks, will tackle “signal blackspots” in 57 tunnels, covering almost 50km, including the 4-kilometre-long Chipping Sodbury tunnel near Bristol.
In addition, mobile network operators (EE, O2, Vodafone / Three UK) will also invest – supported by Freshwave – in new 4G/5G infrastructure at 12 of the biggest Network Rail stations across the country including Birmingham New St, Bristol Temple Meads, Edinburgh Waverley, Euston, Glasgow Central, King’s Cross, Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street, Liverpool Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Paddington and Waterloo.
Heidi Alexander, Secretary of State for Transport, said:
“This is a game changer for passengers up and down the country and will revolutionise journeys from Paddington to Penzance and Edinburgh to Euston.
By boosting connectivity and tackling signal blackspots, we are also ensuring a more reliable and efficient service.
This means better journeys for passengers while supporting our broader Plan for Change goals of economic growth and digital innovation.”
Jeremy Westlake, Network Rail’s Chief Financial Officer, said:
“I’m delighted that we have now signed this innovative deal with our partners Neos Networks and Freshwave.
This investment model will deliver the necessary upgrades to our telecoms infrastructure faster whilst offering significant value-for-money for the taxpayer and stimulating wider economic benefits across the country.
As we move towards becoming a unified railway with the formation of Great British Railways, the enhanced telecoms infrastructure will play a key role in our ambition to provide a data-driven railway of the future, delivering better connectivity and a better, more reliable train service for our passengers.”
The enhanced network (currently a 48 count fibre cable, moving to 432 count) will also enable Network Rail to monitor railway assets more effectively and facilitate the rollout of new technologies that rely on better connectivity. This includes trackside sensors and CCTV applications, paving the way for a more joined-up railway with faster and more reliable train services for passengers, as well as improved safety for railway workers.
We should point out that the railway’s current fibre optic cable system uses 24 and 48 count fibre cable – “similar to what you’d find in the ground on residential streets” for FTTP broadband. Neos new high count cable will be a 432 core cable, hugely increasing their network’s capability. Network Rail will use half the new capacity and Neos will commercialise the other half.
The first installations of new mobile infrastructure under this new multi-year project are expected to take place sometime in 2026 and it’s then due to be “fully rolled out” by 2028. In addition, the government estimates that the involvement of private investment in the project is expected to save the taxpayer around £300m.
At this point it may be worth remembering that, back in December 2017, the previous Government pledged to make “uninterrupted” WiFi and Mobile (5G) broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps (Gigabits per second) available on-board all UK mainline train routes by 2025. But that was later kicked into the long grass and no further updates ever seemed to materialise, which largely left any glacial progress up to the private sector.