Ministers to run £1bn auction for phone lines along UK railways
The government will run an auction of phone lines running alongside Britain’s railway lines in a move that could raise up to £1bn.
Thousands of miles of phone lines will be sold off in a bid to improve train services and boost broadband speeds.
Bidders will both be responsible for upgrading the cables and building 250 new phone masts near to railway tracks.
It is hoped that the upgrade programme will help the government to improve broadband services in rural areas of the UK.
Switching out the decades-old copper lines which Network Rail currently uses for signalling for new full-fibre lines could also prevent signalling failures.
The programme will also add spare broadband capacity, the Telegraph reported. It said that Network Rail, the state-backed tracks and station owner, expects more than 50pc of spare capacity will be available to the winning bidder.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “Upgrading the fibre optic cable network beside our railways has the potential to create a more digitally connected railway, and could lay the foundations towards eradicating the blackspots and phone signal outages which infuriate passengers.”
The plan comes after it was revealed over the weekend that Network Rail was facing a financial hole due to concerns about passenger numbers post-Covid.
In worst case scenarios prepared by the body, reported by the Telegraph, it is feared that passenger numbers could remain 40 per cent below pre-Covid levels for four years.
That would blow a £4bn hole in the organisation’s revenue, it added.