Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, (b) mobile phone operators and (c) train operators on improving wi-fi services throughout the rail network.

I met with Margot James, the Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, on 15 January 2019 to discuss passenger connectivity. My officials have regular discussions with their counterparts at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). They also regularly engage directly with mobile phone and train operators. This is on a 1:1 basis, through franchise discussions and at industry led forums, the most recent in March and June this year. Officials from both departments are assisting the mobile phone operators to trial new types of antennas at the government funded 5G rail test bed at Network Rail’s Rail Innovation Development Centre.