News

Ofcom Jumps On Board the Train Connectivity Debate

(04 Jun 2026, BWCS Staff)
UK communications watchdog, Ofcom, has released some damming data on train connectivity. In a report published yesterday, the regulator claims that mobile performance was “poor” on between 58% and 83% of tests carried out on trains, depending on which network was being scrutinised. In what it says is the most comprehensive such study to date, Ofcom measured mobile performance on 24 segments of key railway lines across mainland Britain. The results were that EE’s signal could be classed as good on 42% of the sections of lines that were measured, Three on 21%, O2 on 20%......

British Government Backs On-Board Connectivity Following Major Trials

(27 May 2026, BWCS Staff)
Train WiFi in the UK is set to receive a major boost following soon to be announced government plans. Over 1,400 trains across the country will be provided with faster and more reliable connectivity. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is expected to reveal the details later this summer. New technology will be introduced on most main line services. This follows pilot schemes using LEO satellite connectivity involving LNER, South Western Railway and Great Western Railway companies. It will now be rolled out across the board with the state investing £57 million. According to a......

More WiFi from the Sky North of the Border

(13 May 2026, BWCS Staff)
ScotRail is to expand satellite-delivered WiFi connectivity to its fleet of Class 222 trains. According to a report in the online Global Railway Review, Nomad Digital will add the system as part of a wider refurbishment and long-term support programme for the Scottish trains led by Alstom in partnership with Beacon Rail. The wider introduction of LEO Satellite services is aimed at improving on-board WiFi connectivity for passengers. ScotRail will introduce 22 refurbished Class 222 Meridians from early 2027, on routes between Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee and Inverness. Last......

A Peek Into the Future - Bullet Trains Get 5G Window Upgrade

(20 Apr 2026, BWCS Staff)
A handful of Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains are to be fitted out with new 5G-enabled windows. The glass, with in-built antennas, will be installed in some carriages as part of a series of private suites. The new areas will also have special NTT-developed noise-cancelling technology. Rail operator JR Central said it plans to install two such suites on each of six trains initially, with further roll out expected later. The 5G-friendly windows have been developed by AGC and have microscopic wires woven into the glass, these are then connected to an on-board WiFi router. AGC says rival......

Peninsula Trial Underlines Case for Improved Train Connectivity

(27 Mar 2026, BWCS Staff)
The successful conclusion of a 60-day trial of new WiFi connectivity on a GWR Intercity Express train in the UK has led to calls to roll out the system across the train operator’s network. The technology used in the trial was first developed to improve radio comms with Formula One cars by Motion Applied (formerly McLaren Applied). It used mobile phone signals backed by LEO Satellite delivery to create stronger and faster connections. Peninsula Transport, the transport body for Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay helped organise the trial in conjunction with Motion Applied,......

Bangladesh Trains Trial WiFi On Board Service

(17 Mar 2026, BWCS Staff)
Bangladesh Railways has launched a pilot project to provide free WiFi on board some of its intercity trains. The state-owned operator says the trial is part of a national initiative aimed at expanding public access to the Internet across the country’s transport network. The move comes a mere ten years after WiFi was introduced at some main stations and talked about for trains.   According to reports in the local press, a pilot project has been launched on the Dhaka–Chattogram–Cox’s Bazar train route and is employing Starlink satellite internet service and......

Two More Train Operators Look to the Skies for WiFi Salvation

(17 Feb 2026, BWCS Staff)
South Western Railway in the UK and privately-owned NTV Italo in Italy are the latest companies to sign up with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service in a bid to bridge coverage gaps along their train routes. However, whilst the UK operator has begun a trial of the service on one train, NTV Italo is planning a full fleet-wide launch in May of this year. Meanwhile, not to be outdone, rival LEO satellite operators Hughes, Eutelsat and Amazon are about to launch new service offerings into this space. British train company SWR says it is currently trialling the Starlink satellite service......

Long-Awaited Satellite to Train WiFi Service to Debut in Kazakhstan

(07 Jan 2026, BWCS Staff)
Kazakhstan is set to become the latest country to introduce a satellite-delivered WiFi on trains service. The country was once home to a trial of satellite-delivered connectivity to trains way back in 2006, but the system was moth-balled following a lengthy trial. Now, the state-owned rail operator will follow in the footsteps of Brightline in the USA, ScotRail in the UK and Lithuanian Railways in adopting satellite as a way of keeping trains connected to the Internet. Other train companies, including SNCF and Deutsche Bahn are known to be mulling a trial of similar services. The......

Two New WiFi on Trains Services Set to Hit the Tracks

(05 Jan 2026, BWCS Staff)
Gabon is set to become the latest nation to launch WiFi services on its trains. Perched on the Atlantic coast, the small African country boasts one of the highest GDP-per-capita figures on the continent and is home to the 420-mile Trans-Gabon line. This week the country’s Ministry of Digital Economy, Digitalization, and Innovation said that the official launch of WiFi services on passenger trains took place on December 23rd, 2025. Throughout the early part of the project, passengers will only be able to access their WhatsApp applications. However, the range of services will be......

GWR Set to Trial F1 Tech for Train WiFi

(17 Nov 2025, BWCS Staff)
UK train operator GWR is to test a new system of delivering faster and more reliable WiFi to its trains. The technology, which was first developed to improve radio comms with Formula One cars by Motion Applied, uses mobile phone signals backed by LEO Satellite delivery to create stronger connections. The 60-day trial, which is now underway, has been organised in partnership with the transport body for Cornwall, Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay, Peninsula Transport. It is understood the train will run across different lines on the GWR network. The UK certainly appears to have some......

Saudi Railway Company Signs 5G Trackside Deal

(28 Oct 2025, BWCS Staff)
Swedish mobile equipment supplier Ericsson is to team up with the Saudi Railway Company to deploy 5G tech across the Saudi rail network. In a statement both companies said they aim to “modernise operations, enhance reliability, and strengthen connectivity.” The initiative forms part of the Transport section of the much-heralded Saudi Vision 2030 project. The aim of the huge investments currently underway is to advance national infrastructure and position the Kingdom as a global innovation and logistics hub.   Under the terms of a joint Memorandum of Understanding,......

National Train Operator Sees WiFi Window of Opportunity

(20 Oct 2025, BWCS Staff)
Finnish state-owned train company, VR, is making a renewed effort to improve its on-board WiFi service. This year, the company says it will alter all windows in a transparent bid to help boost reception from cell-towers inside the carriages. The move follows the 5 million euros VR spent on train WiFi last year. However, according to Finnish broadcaster, YLE, this investment had little impact on passenger WiFi connections   VR’s latest plan is to laser-engrave windows as a means of improving access to mobile base stations as trains roll past them. The company argues that......

WiFi Provided by UK Train Companies Ranked by Passengers

(16 Oct 2025, BWCS Staff)
Reports comparing on-train WiFi services are like buses, it appears, you wait ages for one and then two come along at once. The latest data-set to emerge, this week, comes from Uswitch broadband and is restricted to how travellers feel about the WiFi offered by the numerous train companies operating in the UK. The survey kicks off with the less than surprising assertion that 86% of British commuters spend at least some of their train-time working (or pretending to work). However, only a third admit to doing so “very regularly”. The good news, for some, is that Uswitch......

WiFi on Trains Speed-Tested – Compare Each Country in Europe

(14 Oct 2025, BWCS Staff)
It’s as if it was announced just in time for this year’s Traincomms Conference (it wasn’t), the differing standards of on-board WiFi connectivity across Europe have been measured by Ookla Speedtest®. And some countries have got more to crow about than others… Ookla, which is a division of US-based online publishing giant Ziff- Davis, used crowd-sourced feedback on data speeds from passengers actually travelling on trains as they rumbled across the continent and the British Isles. According to the online research company’s figures, Sweden sits atop the league......

New Train Software Platform Wins Rail Innovation Award

(04 Sep 2025, BWCS Staff)
At BWCS we love a good success story, especially when it involves alliances that were fostered, if not formed, at Traincomms. For that reason, we are delighted to report that TrainManager, a cloud-based software platform created by Xentrans, has won an Innovative Rail Solutions Award for its implementation on board Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) trains in the US. The system, which was built to modernise the planning, management, and maintenance of Northern California’s intercity rail fleet has now replaced outdated shared-spreadsheets and other analog methods with a......

New Acela Trains Offer Much-Improved WiFi

(01 Sep 2025, BWCS Staff)
US train operator Amtrak has launched the much-anticipated new Acela fleet on its North-Eastern routes. Five trains are set to run immediately, with the remainder to be added over the next two years. Capable of speeds of up to 160mph the new trains also boast much-improved WiFi and a USB port at every seat. In addition, they have better lighting, bigger windows and more comfortable seats. Each new train can accommodate 25% riders than their predecessors. The improved connectivity follows a pair of RFIs issued by Amtrak last year. The company called for two Requests for information......

Eutelsat Comes out Punching in French Sky Fight for Supremacy

(01 Aug 2025, BWCS Staff)
European-based Eutelsat is fighting back in the battle to win the contract to supply broadband to SNCF trains. The French owned satellite service provider has been outlining its strengths to industry magazine - Payload Space. Eutelsat OneWeb is one of two most likely competitors for the recently announced tender to provide satellite-delivered broadband to French national train operator SNCF. While the bids have yet to be received, Eutelsat is banging the drum for its local connections. For its part, the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX - Starlink has been keeping its powder dry and did not comment......

SNCF Latest to Trial Satellite to Train Services

(07 Jul 2025, BWCS Staff)
France is set to be the latest country to trial satellite-delivered broadband to trains. Government-owned SNCF will launch a tender aimed at adding satellite internet to its trains. The move follows several other nations trialling satellite services in a bid to eliminate “not-spots” along the tracks and provide more consistent onboard connectivity. SNCF confirmed to Reuters press service at the weekend that it plans to employ an "innovative approach to strengthen connectivity and resilience" by combining terrestrial networks with low Earth-orbit satellite solutions. The main......

How Passengers Are Using On-Train Wi-Fi in 2025: Insights Revealed for World WiFi Day

(03 Jul 2025, BWCS Staff)
Google tops the on-train Wi-Fi bandwidth league table, with Instagram, Facebook, Netflix and TikTok close behind, confirming rail passengers now expect a home broadband experience while on the move. Insights are drawn from the anonymised Wi-Fi traffic of more than two million daily users travelling on thousands of trains in service across Europe and North America over the last 12 months. Rail operators are trialling low-Earth-orbit satellite technology – such as SpaceX’s Starlink – to boost onboard Wi-Fi speeds and reliability for passengers and day-to-day train......

More Details on UK Plan to Eliminate Train Not-Spots

(02 Jul 2025, BWCS Staff)
More information has been revealed on the UK government’s plan to eliminate so-called “not-spots” along some of the country’s main train lines. The much-vaunted Project Reach will, the government stresses, save the taxpayer some £300 million by using a mix of public and private sector investment. The new scheme, which will start next year and should be complete by 2028, will see Neos Networks lay an initial 1,000km of ultra-fast fibre optic cable up the East Coast Main Line and along parts of the West Coast Main Line. In the future this may, or may not, be......