Queensland Rail has gone to market for a supplier to provide a Wi-Fi service on the state's suburban trains that would offer wireless internet, security and other services.
In April, the state's Transport Minister Rachel Nolan revealed Queensland Rail had conducted a trial of the technology on the Gold Coast line network and wanted to blanket its Citytrain network, including stations, with Wi-Fi coverage.
In a request for information document released this week, Queensland Rail said it wanted a communications service that would allow it to:
- Stream CCTV images from carriages back to a central monitoring office
- Deliver Wi-Fi services to passengers
- Provide a channel that would allow the delivery of customised data and media from Queensland Rail to on-board passenger mobile devices and fixed display screens in the trains; for example, LCD screens
The document revealed there was currently no carrier-provided wireless communications to Queensland Rail's Citytrain carriages, meaning retrieving CCTV security footage from the trains was a manual process. In addition, passengers on trains had no access to the internet, apart from their own 3G mobile devices.
Regarding passenger use of the proposed Wi-Fi services, Queensland Rail is envisaging that passengers would be able to access the internet on trains, as well as packaged content, such as Queensland Rail safety messages, information about track closures and special events, and "infotainment" such as news, weather and sport.
Queensland Rail is currently investigating the feasibility of installing additional LCD screens in trains to aid with providing information to passengers; currently, some trains have several LCD screens, but not all.
I can see it now: Internet junkies camped out on trains and train stations all day to download as much data as they can. Wonder how fast the wifi networld would be? Perhaps a joint initiative between Telstra and QLD Rail to provide NextG type speeds to passengers?