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Sat, 30 May 2026

Sat, 30 May 2026 Why Britain's notoriously bad train wi-fi might soon be a thing of the past

How bad is the signal on our trains? We spoke to commuters to find out.

* The government has announced plans to boost train wi-fi speed and reliability over the next five years by rolling out low-earth satellite connectivity on 1,400 trains.
* This would aim to increase availability from 50-60% to at least 90%, as well as increasing speeds between five- and ten-fold.
* The Department for Transport will spend £57m on the project, which follows a trial of satellite connectivity with several operators.
* Current train wi-fi relies on mobile networks, which can be affected by tunnels and signal strength, leading to dropped connections and poor performance.