To think free wifi on trains is not a low priority for passengers?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65673622

Being reported that the government thinks free wifi is a low priority for passengers so could be cut to save money. Maybe I am out of step, but I really appreciate it, especially on long journeys. I don't watch TV or films, just browse the net on and off and use Whatsapp. Is it really impossible to have a properly staffed train service running more or less to time and also offering free wifi?

Being able to work on a train is a big positive over driving somewhere. If the government want people out their cars and using public transport they need to use every advantage the train has.

And if the government don't ?

Should have read: "And if the government don't want that ?"

If ypu think that Japanese people always get a seat, you're very much mistaken. They specifically employ people to use force to cram as many people into the doors as possible.

Being reported that the government thinks free wifi is a low priority for passengers so could be cut to save money.

The thing is, like everything, it will be cut but it won't save the consumer.
The reality is train tickets are so expensive and the amount going towards wifi is probably pennies. I would rather have wifi on the train than train bosses creaming off an extra £1 from the ticket price.

On my journey it’s not more reliable than mobile data and therefore useless.

That depends on what it’s for/how you’re using it and how sensitive your work is. If you were using it to research via the internet, for example, it would be perfectly fine.

They certainly don’t seem to want that, with the lack of meaningful subsidy for rail travel.

Rather than looking to cut costs, they should be looking to invest to make rail travel a more attractive and viable proposition.

I travelled first class in France last year Paris to Rouen and back. Cheap compared to Uk, clean double decker trains but no free wifi - or any wifi from what I could see.

Since when do people get signal for their train journeys?

On a 2 hour trip I'd say I'm out of service for about half of it.

Not much signal to be had through fields and fields!

That's what VPNs are for.

They need to stop wasting money on shit like HS2

I routinely travel between Birmingham and Liverpool and London. The phone signal is awful so I want the wifi. I do enjoy sitting back with a book or just looking out the window but I also want to listen to spotify, do some work or do some work on my degree.

I agree with PPs who ask why we accept such poor public services here.

I have yet to be on a train with decent wifi. It's slow and patchy at its best. And usually sits down, sulks and refuses to play at all.

The Government wants more people to come into the office instead of WFM so deincentivising travel for commuters is dumb AF. But that's this Government for you.

I agree with PPs who ask why we accept such poor public services here.

Because we are very subtly (and not so subtly) indoctrinated that wanting a decent public service is somehow snowflakey. And although it was allegedly a "joke" (I suspect it wasn't, but the backlash meant it had to be portayed as such) the recent statement by an MP that "we all swam in sewage when I were a lad" plays straight into that.

And whatever you do, never ever fall into the mistake a few posters here have done of daring to comment on how other countries seem to do things better. Because in my long long experience that is probably the bet way to ensure it never gets done here.

Those of use who are the right age will recall the Fawlty Towers episode where the Americans visited was a pitch perfect portrayal of how daring to want a decent service for a decent price was considered an arrestable offence.

A "commute" should be a 20 minute journey at most. It should be viewed separately from intercity rail journeys (i.e. Birmingham to London).

When I started working last century, our team had a trade show in London. We were based in Birmingham. When I was given the details of where we'd meet the hired car, I did my greenie-hippy-dippy strop and said we should be using the train to save the planet. And bless the director that listened to my ranting, they gave me a phone, a couple of hours, and the freedom to arrange it.

After two hours it was clear that the only way a train would work would be to travel down the day before, stay in a hotel, and then get taxis back to our individual homes after midnight on the return. The cost to the company would have been around £1,500. All of a sudden £80 on a hire car (plus fuel) made perfect sense.

That was the late 80s. Fuck all has changed. That's how I knew HS2 would be a spectacular flop.

@SerendipityJane my commutes well over an hour.

Hs2 was heavily billboarded as a way you could live in birmingham and commute to london.

i Did a lot of travel between the two affected sites during “consultation”.
birmingham had signs saying things like “the south don’t want you to have their jobs” and the london side had billboards saying “the north don’t want you to have their cheaper housing”

when you spoke to both “sides” neither side wanted it. But it was pitched as very much them vs us.

There was free WiFi on the Paris-Luxembourg double decker train last weekend. Seemed reliable enough to me. I think it's standard for the tgvs now. Also had a charger per pair of seats...

The financial benefit of northern house prices on a southern salary would be somewhat eroded by the cost of a daily train commute. A return ticket usable at peak times is £188 so even allowing for discounts associated with a season ticket, that is not going to be cheap. Even an off-peak return is £65.

Oh completely agree. They didn’t quite sell that aspect in the adverts.

and youve hit the crux there. It shouldn’t be cheaper to fill my car and do the drive then get the train, and that’s before you’ve added in going as a family

Exactly, and then you have to factor in as well potential cost of travel to, or parking at your local station unless you are near enough to walk, and cost of travel from the London station to your actual workplace.

Pretty high priority for my route because the mobile data doesn't have signal but the wifi is pretty good. Its only a 30 min route and I would be happy to read a book however the train is so congested you are usually standing in the middle on the carriage so books are awkward. Free wifi is the least they can do if I am paying an ridiculous amount and they cant even provide enough seats.

There is a philosophical if not semantic debate to be had as to whether that is a commute ...