Mobile Phone Coverage on Main Lines

[MrJeeves]

When I worked on that line we had to acquire a second phone using the Vodafone network rather than the standard O2 that we ended up referring to as the B&H phone. It had marginally better reception but still wasn't fantastic.

Given that Vodafone and O2 share the exact same radio network and cell site infrastructure in the vast majority of the country (outside of maybe the top 10 major cities), that's very impressive!

 

[dk1]

The GEML is very patchy, certainly south of Chelmsford. Would be nice to be able to work if I need to.

WiFi always works well for me on Stadlers.

 

[Recessio]

Terrible on O2 between Guildford and London. As soon as you get a hundred yards outside of Guildford and Woking it just falls off a cliff until you're well inside London, and then it dies again at the approach to Clapham Junction.

 

[Aviator88]

Not sure as I don’t travel on them enough. I don’t remember having any issues with mobile data last time I travelled Birmingham - London.

Me neither to be fair, but I've seen it said more than a couple of times. Perhaps one day a 390 will come between me and social media, who knows!

 

[ValleyLines142]

Bromsgrove to Cheltenham is particularly bad, and Guildford to Havant isn't too great either!

 

[numtot12345]

Cathcart Circle - signal between queen's park and mount Florida, and pollokshields west and Shawlands is non existent. Ticket examiner machines don't work when people use card to pay for tickets so there is an awkward wait for the payment to got through, or they take cash only or come back to the passenger later. Suppose it's really on a few minutes there is no signal but can be frustrating when you're quicky needing to send a couple quick messages or check things on your phone.

 

[dgl]

South west main line always seems poor to me which is interesting as bar the tunnels the Heart of the Wessex/Wessex Main Line Weymouth to Bristol gets good mobile reception even in areas where cows vastly outnumber humans,yet going through the BCP conurbation you'll be lucky if you can get a signal.

 

[blue87]

I find the signal on the platforms at Euston is dodgy at times, despite having full signal the Internet can be very slow or not working at all. Seems to be worse since the surrounding buildings were demolished to make way for HS2. I'm guessing the transmitters that may have been on some of them haven't been relocated adding strain onto the other ones nearby.

 

[TomH1994]

Does anyone know when St Pancras got service beamed down the tunnels to Lower level platforms? Never used to get signal down there now I get full 4G

 

[MrJeeves]

Does anyone know when St Pancras got service beamed down the tunnels to Lower level platforms? Never used to get signal down there now I get full 4G

St Pancras has a generic distributed antenna system (DAS), which I believe either went live or was upgraded at the start of January 2023.

You can see the rounded square panels in this photo, next to the illuminated emergency direction signs.



City Thameslink also has a coverage solution but only on EE. This went live on 10 Nov 2016.

 

[TomH1994]

St Pancras has a generic distributed antenna system (DAS), which I believe either went live or was upgraded at the start of January 2023.

You can see the rounded square panels in this photo, next to the illuminated emergency direction signs.

View attachment 157507

City Thameslink also has a coverage solution but only on EE. This went live on 10 Nov 2016.

Thanks for this! Sometimes it’s nice to have signal down there when needed for work or other purposes

 

[Andy Pacer]

In my experience I find MML to be fairly poor between Leicester and Market Harborough.

 

[ejstubbs]

The issue on the MML is that the meridians having a lining in the window glass which kills the mobile signal.

Don't the Pendos have/suffer with a similar coating? Either mobile signal or GPS, can't remember which!

It was certainly very difficult to a get a GPS fix when I was on a Pendolino from Birmingham to Edinburgh a few weeks back. Both Google Maps and OS Maps were only managing to update my location about once every ten minutes at best.

I don't recall any major issues with mobile signal on that journey, apart from the occasional Vodafone 'notspot'. (IME it's actually worse for that on the M74/M6, which seems a bit odd.)

 

[Ken H]

Is mobile reception hampered by electrification
I have a very poor mobile signal at home. It gets far worse in wet weather. I am told a wet tree in leaf stops most radio signals.
No idea what wet fizzy knitting does to radio signals.
But mobile reception is not a contant.

 

[03_179]

The worst is the London Bridge to East Croydon line as it has some cutting where signals drop a lot.

Midland Mainline is VERY patchy.
Last Saturday got a signal all the way to Nottingham ... on the return it hardly connected. Some 222s appear to be line a faraday cage !

 

[renegademaster]

The worst is the London Bridge to East Croydon line as it has some cutting where signals drop a lot.

Midland Mainline is VERY patchy.
Last Saturday got a signal all the way to Nottingham ... on the return it hardly connected. Some 222s appear to be line a faraday cage !

Its always around Brockley my signal used to drop out

 

[ThameslinkUser]

The worst is the London Bridge to East Croydon line as it has some cutting where signals drop a lot.

The worst on the BML is Redhill Tunnel - Three Bridges, excl. Gatwick station itself. Shows as full 4G but seemingly has a bandwidth of 0.

 

[317 forever]

In April the signal was good between St Pancras and Sheffield, though not always onto Stockport. Conversely, the signal often broke up between Euston and Stockport. I wondered whether it was because I travelled 1st class on EMR.

 

[JD2168]

The phone signal is pretty dreadful between Chapeltown & Barnsley. When leaving Sheffield towards Meadowhall until you get through the tunnels between the walls the signal is pretty poor.

 

[Skie]

Complete dead zone between Weaver Junction and Runcorn station. Phone signal is bad too.

 

[vuzzeho]

Milton Keynes to Euston is pretty hit and miss. Particularly Leighton Buzzard to Milton Keynes.

It's a total dead zone for me (VOXI, which uses Vodafone's 5G network) and I thought it was the 390s but I get good signal on other parts of the WCML. Doesn't help that WiFi on trains still has a long way to go.

 

[Peter0124]

Most of the Argyle line between Dalmarnock and Exhibition Centre lacks signal as it's mainly tunnel.

It's possible to get very strong signal in Glasgow Central Low Level / Argyle Street stations on EE. Vodafone not so much.

 

[sansyy]

On the WCML between Crewe and Stafford I get atrocious signal using an iPhone 12 on Vodafone but not sure if that's the phone or the network. Ever since the shutdown of the 3G network using my mobile on the WCML has been a pain! Always stuck on E unable to even use the phone but at least it's very good between Rugby and London Euston when it used to be pretty bad. Would recommend using a network that still has 3G (O2 and Three) if you're relying on mobile signal while travelling as most the WCML has 3G coverage but struggles with 4G and 5G (ofc!)

 

[Canary73]

I travelled from Chelmsford to Preston and back over the last day or so and the vodafone coverage was pretty poor on lots of the WCML. Might be mine phone but the signal went from 4G to E to no signal often.

 

[317 forever]

I travelled from Chelmsford to Preston and back over the last day or so and the vodafone coverage was pretty poor on lots of the WCML. Might be mine phone but the signal went from 4G to E to no signal often.

Mine is Vodafone too and yes, I kept seeing the E due to no 4G being available intermittently.

 

[Towers]

One that I find surprising is Winchester. Being both the county town of Hampshire and a major London commuter base, not to mention rather well to do, you’d think decent mobile signal might be a given. And yet it’s utterly dreadul, often nothing at all when on a train sitting in the station, and no better out on the platform.

 

[Krokodil]

West Highland Line has a pretty good signal, only blackspots that come to mind are Rannoch Moor and Loch Eilt. Good service on the Conwy Valley Line as far as Roman Bridge too.

Travelling between Crewe and Euston on the other hand...

 

[bicbasher]

Its always around Brockley my signal used to drop out

O2 seems to work the best on that section surprisingly. When I moved to EE, the problems returned, but it works at Brockley station where I got decent speeds on Platform 1.

 

[miami]

Signal is terrible on the WCML for something which costs £1 a mile in standard class. Meanwhile I get great connectivity on a flying across the sahara on a ticket costing 1/4 of that. For much of the time they can't even take payments south of Milton Keynes. Once you hit Watford it's time to pack up when heading south, as you won't get anything else done.

It's no longer 1970, passengers no longer need a newspaper under one arm and somewhere to keep their bowler hat. The main selling point of the railway is the ability to do work on it, otherwise you might as well fly in half the time.

 

[godfreycomplex]

I remember c.10 years ago once you left Petersfield until you came out of the other end of the tunnel and into outer regions of Portsmouth the only coverage you could (barely) get was Vodafone.

Still the case today