Capita to Rollout Emergency Network on London Underground

Transport for London (TfL) has today awarded Capita the contract to design and roll-out key parts of a new 4G (mobile) based Emergency Services Network (ESN) throughout the London Underground, which will be used by the police, fire, rescue and ambulance teams to communicate during any incidents that may require their attention.

The contract – to design and deliver the network infrastructure which underpins ESN for the London Underground – is said to be worth £23.5m over 12 months (funded by the Home Office). The new setup will replace the existing Motorola-owned Airwave network, which harnesses TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) network technology (sadly this only tends to deliver dialup style data speeds).

The scope of the contract includes the design, installation and testing of network cables in TfL’s underground tunnels, as well as the installation and testing of the Local Area Network (LAN) infrastructure on platforms and in stations. The service itself is to be delivered by mobile operator EE (BT).

Shashi Verma, CFO of TfL, said:

“This contract delivers key elements of the infrastructure required to bring the new Emergency Services Network to the London Underground network. With close to half of the Tube located underground, it’s vital that this system will help support the police, fire and ambulance services if they are required to help our customers.”

The new ESN is designed to work independently of public mobile phone networks, although it’s worth noting that Capita also worked with TfL on their project to deliver the first publicly available 4G mobile (mobile broadband) service on the London Underground, which was launched as a pilot project in March 2020 (here) – along the Jubilee Line, between Westminster and Canning Town, and the platforms from Westminster to North Greenwich.