Patchy Connectivity Continues to Derail Productivity

This morning, like many others before it, I boarded a train in Southampton with good intentions and a full to-do list. I had emails to respond to, documents to review, and meetings to prep for. But as the train pulled away, so too did my access to reliable WiFi and mobile data. By the time we reached Birmingham I’d lost a whole morning, not to distraction or delay, but to the complete inability to connect to the internet.

It’s not just frustrating. It is absurd.

In 2025, when hybrid working is standard, and we’re told the future is “digital-first,” it’s remarkable that we still can’t get reliable internet on major train routes across the UK. For professionals who rely on travel time to get things done, the lack of decent WiFi is more than an inconvenience, it’s a direct hit to productivity.

A Nation on the Move… and Offline

Trains should be the ideal mobile office: comfortable(ish), quiet(ish), and with the potential for uninterrupted blocks of work. But without a functioning internet connection, many of the tasks that make train time productive – cloud-based editing, accessing shared drives, joining video calls, or simply sending a large attachment – become impossible.

Yes, some operators offer “free WiFi,” but that often translates to a throttled, unreliable signal capable only of loading a few web pages at a time – provided you’re not passing through a tunnel, a valley, or even just sitting at the platform! And while some people can work offline, the modern knowledge worker is more dependent than ever on real-time collaboration, cloud storage, and connectivity.

The Economic Cost of Disconnection

We talk a lot about infrastructure investment in the UK through roads, railways, energy, etc., but digital infrastructure on the move remains an afterthought. The productivity cost is significant. Thousands of professionals spend hours each day on trains that should be enabling seamless work but instead act as productivity dead zones.

Consider this: let's assume just 10% of the UK’s 1.7 million daily rail travellers want to do some work on the train. If they lose one hour of productive time due to poor WiFi, that’s 170,000 hours of lost output, every single day. Multiply that across weeks and months, and you start to see the scale of this missed opportunity.

A Solvable Problem

This isn’t a technical impossibility. Other countries manage it. Countries like South Korea, Japan, and parts of mainland Europe offer fast, reliable internet even on high-speed trains. It’s a matter of investment, prioritisation, and national ambition. If the UK is serious about productivity, about being a “global tech hub,” or about supporting the needs of a modern, mobile workforce, then decent train WiFi needs to move from luxury to necessity.

Let’s Stay Connected

Until then, we’ll continue to lose time, miss deadlines, and arrive at destinations more stressed than when we left. It's not about being online for the sake of it; it’s about enabling people to do their jobs well, wherever they are.

Is there a trade body or a consumer association that can take up this issue and engage with Government on what is a distinctly 21st century problem? Because in 2025 it really shouldn’t be too much to ask for reliable connectivity to keep businesses on track.