We’re Told Rail Is the Future – But It Can’t Even Do the Basics

It was a simple plan: a train to Bristol, an hour of admin on the way, and arrive ready for the meeting. But the moment I opened my laptop, the Wi‑Fi gave up. Tried again, same story. Eventually, I gave up entirely and stared out the window, reflecting on how little the infrastructure has moved on.

Rail is pitched as the modern, green alternative to driving or flying: more sustainable, more productive, more civilised. But when you cannot complete even the simplest online task (filling in some forms on a government website) because the connection drops every few minutes, the whole narrative falls apart.

Another traveller told me bluntly: “Pricing, reliability, and the ability to work” And they are right. This was the mainline between Reading and Bristol, not some rural spur. If we cannot make internet access reliable on core intercity routes, what hope is there for wider adoption?

Others noted how GWR’s blackspots are well known, yet somehow still unresolved. And all this comes at a time when the government continues to pour billions into HS2. The line has consumed vast public and political capital, cutting through the countryside in the name of capacity and time savings. But even its defenders struggle to explain why we are not fixing the basics first. Oxford economist Daniel Susskind puts it starkly: fixing train Wi‑Fi yields fifty times the benefit per pound spent compared to high-speed rail.

From the vantage point of ecommerce and logistics, these are not just commuter gripes. SMEs depend on reliable rail to travel to trade shows, visit clients, or snatch a few productive hours between hubs. When that travel becomes unreliable – whether due to delays, inconsistent service or non-existent internet – business suffers.

And people adapt. They drive instead. Which is precisely what the government says it does not want.

It is not that HS2 was a bad idea in principle – it is that the sequencing has been wrong. What rail really needs now is Wi‑Fi that works, trains that run, and prices that make sense.

If ministers are serious about getting people out of cars and onto trains, then they need to get serious about what passengers actually experience. From Seat 43 in Carriage D, it is clear something has gone off the rails.