Wi-Fi upgrade for South Western Railway

Work to improve South Western Railway’s in-train Wi-Fi service is underway along the railway between Basingstoke and Earlsfield.

Engineers for the project by evo-rail and SWR, in partnership with Network Rail, have now installed the first series of rail-5G poles on the line between Basingstoke and Earlsfield on the South West Main Line. With over 100 trains already fitted to accommodate the 5G backhaul for the Wi-Fi service, the technology will cover 70km of the SWR network between Basingstoke and Earlsfield.

The 5G towers are used to connect the in-train Wi-Fi service to the fixed internet network, and the faster the backhaul network, the greater the capacity and speed of the Wi-Fi network for passengers in the train.

Before being rolled out in southwest London, a large-scale pilot on SWR’s Island Line on the Isle of Wight was carried out. The successful trial proved that the rail-5G solution can consistently deliver one gigabit per second (Gbps) throughput to a moving train, so now the technology is being rolled out to other parts of the SWR network.

Full deployment is likely to complete and launch for customer use in early 2023.

Christian Neill, Customer Experience Director for South Western Railway, commented: “South Western Railway is committed to providing a modern customer experience for the digital age and rolling out new superfast internet, at 50 times the current average speeds, is an integral part of our plan to do that.”