Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 28
28
Accepted
Lack of detailed railway mobile coverage data hinders understanding of challenges
Conclusion
The Department told us that it lacks sufficiently detailed data of coverage across the railways. To understand the coverage challenges along different stretches of track, it needs data for each metre. In 2020, the National Infrastructure Commission recommended that Ofcom should report on mobile coverage on the railways at least every two years. Ofcom’s last study on rail coverage was in 2019. The Department said that it had asked Ofcom to improve reporting of coverage on the railways, including improving how Ofcom measures coverage.54
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states it has asked Ofcom to report on rail coverage and investigate new data methods, while the Department for Transport has commissioned a study using scanners on engineering trains to establish baseline data by early 2025.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring 2025 6.2 The department has asked Ofcom to report on the availability of mobile coverage on the rail network in its annual Connected Nations report. To this end, the department asked Ofcom to investigate the feasibility of using in-carriage scanners and crowdsourced data to provide an overview of connectivity on the mainline routes. Ofcom are considering possible approaches to measuring mobile coverage and performance on trains. 6.3 At the same time, the Department for Transport (DfT) has commissioned a study using scanners fitted to the outside of Network Rail’s engineering trains to measure mobile signal strength on train routes. This exercise will finish in early 2025 and will help to establish baseline data for mobile coverage across the UK rail network. 6.4 The department will outline progress on this matter in future Treasury Minute updates once the government’s work with Ofcom on reporting on rail connectivity, and the DfT’s initiative, have concluded.