UK rail to get communications boost - Company Business and Marketing

CommunicationsWeek International, Jan 14, 2001 by Roy Rubenstein

The communications Industry is repaying its debt to the railway operations business. Several years ago the railway industry provided instant network facilities for wholesale carriers. The consortium of European railway companies, which gave rise to the pan-European network, Hermes Europe Railtel, is one example.

Now it looks as if the favor is to be returned. High-speed optical networking technology is set to come to the rescue of the U.K.'s beleaguered railway companies, which have served up a faltering service ever since the Hatfield train crash north of London last year.

"The railway companies were critical to the nascent telecoms industry in Europe," said Glenn Manoff, director of communications at London-based Global Telesystems Group Inc., which has acquired the Hermes network. Having a ready-made network by exploiting the railways' right of way helped "jump start competition in Europe by several years," he said.

Eurotunnel is another railway operator exploiting its infrastructure--the channel tunnel linking the United Kingdom to the Continent--for fast network deployment. It has two telecommunications subsidiaries: Eurotunnel Telecom S.A. and Eurotunnel Telecommunications Ltd.

Later this month Railtrack plc of London, the company responsible for the U.K.'s railway network, is expected to announce an agreement with London-based Marconi plc, for the installation of an optical communications network to speed up Britain's trains. The optical network, part of a train control system, will enable 140 mile-per-hour trains to travel between London and Glasgow by 2005. The network will carry railway signaling information to a center that will send safety and display data to each train. This will be done using a railway-specific GSM cellular network known as GSM-R. "This [cellular technology] is the really clever bit," said Roger Ford, editor of Rail Business Intelligence.

The benefit of using optical technology is its immunity to electromagnetic interference from the high voltage cables used to power the trains. The optical network can also reroute paths when signalling faults occur and can be maintained remotely.

The real question is: will it speed up Britain's train service? "No, not really," said Ford. "it's just communications."