After Maria Miller, the UK former culture secretary, claimed that rail passengers were frustrated by poor or no Wi-Fi on rail services, Prime Minister announced that Wi-Fi was very important for businesses and individuals to be able to do their work and all other contact while they are on trains.

David Cameron announced plans that would see the roll out of free Wi-Fi on trains across the country from 2017. It turned out that the United Kingdom is going to invest about £50 million into rail Internet infrastructure to ensure that rail passengers are better connected.

Prime Minister said that such investment would be provided to 4 rail operators – TSGN, Southeastern, Chiltern and Arriva Trains Wales – which altogether make 500 million journeys annually. The most interesting fact is that the investment will be funded from the fines collected by the Office of Rail Regulation from Network Rail last July for the late running of services. Back in July, many criticized the decision of fining Network Rail for poor service, because this move efficiently reduced the amount of money available to the company to improve the tracks.

The new program suggests that rail passengers will be able to access Internet via equipment installed alongside the track rather than being reliant on a satellite signal.