Friends of the Rail Forum

1. Mobile phone trial on London Underground scrapped

High costs gave Tfl mobile phobia

Carrie-Ann Skinner
PC Advisor

Plans to trial mobile phone use on London's tube network have been scrapped due to high costs, it has been revealed.

In March 2007, Transport for London (TfL) called for a six-month trial on the Waterloo & City line to see if it would be cost effective.

A TfL spokeswoman told silicon.com that none of the three proposals that were received were "commercially credible".

"While it is technically possible to deploy mobile-phone and data-wireless solutions on the deep-level Underground tunnels and stations, the unique nature and environment of the Tube mean that project costs would be prohibitively high at this time," she said.

TfL also said there are currently no active plans to trial or roll out mobile phone use on the tube.

Last year mobile network O2 and telecoms firm Arqiva announced they had installed radio network equipment in Glasgow's underground, which allows passengers to use their handsets during their journeys.

2. TfL cans mobiles on the tube plan

By John Oates
The Register
Posted in Mobile, 16th March 2009 12:34 GMT

Transport for London has given up on plans to get mobile phones working underground.

TfL said the technology was available but it was unable to get anyone interested enough to pay to get the kit installed underground.

We're betting the real reason is that it is so damned noisy on most parts of the Underground that you wouldn't be able to have a conversation by phone anyway.

Betting on punters using the system to send texts and download data has obviously not tempted anyone.

A spokeswoman for TfL said: "London Underground tendered for a trial of mobile phones on the Waterloo and City line, but the market has yet to provide us with a credible proposal for enabling mobile phone use on the Tube.

"While it is technically possible to deploy mobile phone and data wireless solutions on the deep level Underground tunnels and stations, the unique nature and environment of the Tube mean that project costs would be prohibitively high at this time."

Prague and Newcastle both have full mobile access, but London was mulling "to the platform edge" access last time we checked in 2004 - so phones would work in stations but not on trains.

By 2005 TfL was claiming it had received more than 70 bids to install the technology required.

The idea was to split revenue from calls and texts between operators and TfL.

When I was in Hong Kong last year cellphones were the norm rather than the exception on the MTR, people werent only listening to music on their phones (with earphones) but were jabbering away a dime a dozen on them. Possibly because the MTR is a newish system cellphone use was integrated into the design at an early stage. BTW, the Hong Kong MTR is stunning! if only we could do that in ZA.

I'm probably one of those who is glad that cellphones will not be usable on the London tube. I find them intrusive. Although they are useful, the problem seems to be that society has not yet developed an etiquette to go with them.

Mind you, on one of the UK railway discussion boards someone pointed out that the tube is so noisy that it's unlikely anyone would be able to use a cellphone for anything except texting.

[quote="John Ashworth"]I'm probably one of those who is glad that cellphones will not be usable on the London tube. I find them intrusive. Although they are useful, the problem seems to be that society has not yet developed an etiquette to go with them.[quote]

I agree whole heartedly, if it had been me I would have banned them everywhere! On the trip i did to Magaliesburg this month I was shocked to see how many people were buisy on their phones.

Anyone know whether there are plans to intergrate cellphone ncoverage into the Gautrain stations and tunnels?