Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the requirements are for the funding and delivery of wifi on existing rail franchises.

Claire Perry

On all Department for Transport-controlled rail franchises, in England and Wales, free Wi-Fi is being introduced. All train operators bidding for new franchises and direct award agreements will have to include this specification in their bid.

Where there was no new franchise agreement due by December 2016, almost £50 million of funding is being released from the Department for Transport to ensure Wi-Fi is available on selected services. The operators in this group are:

• Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN);
• Southeastern;
• Chiltern; and
• Arriva Trains Wales.