GNER on track to complete Wan upgrade

Rail operator GNER will complete its network infrastructure upgrade later this month when the final station, London's King's Cross, is connected to its wide area network.

In total, 22 stations and depots will connect through the new Wan. The optical fibre network, based on Cisco equipment, uses dense wavelength division multiplexing technology to increase bandwidth by splitting the light waves into constituent colours.

The network will support VoIP, due to be rolled out in the first quarter of 2007. GNER has also installed Wi-Fi across its fleet of 41 trains to support wireless Epos for in-coach catering. It replaces the legacy British Rail trackside network operated by Global Crossing.

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