Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • Virgin trains and phone reception
  • Bushwacked
    Free Member

    Train reception on virgin trains is bloody awful!

    Not sure what it is but travelling back from Leeds to Cheltenham and no signal 95% of the time – not even one bar!!!

    Are they lead lined?

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    No I was on one recently from Chester to Euston and it was fine.

    matthewjb
    Free Member

    Are they lead lined?

    I went on one from Birmingham to Leeds. Zero signal all the way. And no wi-fi.

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    carbon337
    Free Member

    The Cross Country trains (old virgins) are the same

    iain1775
    Free Member

    depends on the train
    the older (Diesel) ones yeah you get no signal
    used to be same on the EatMidland trains between Sheff and London

    TheFunkyMonkey
    Free Member

    Maybe the huge magnetic field produced by the overhead cables interferes with the signal.

    matthewjb
    Free Member

    Maybe the huge magnetic field produced by the overhead cables interferes with the signal.

    There doesn’t seem to be a problem on the GNER trains. My vote is for the carriage shielding the signal (based on no proof whatsoever).

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Not the end of the World though, is it?

    BlobOnAStick
    Full Member

    Mobile phone reception is fine on all Virgin trains, they have mobile signal boosters throughout.

    Cross Country trains (Leeds/cheltenham etc) are ex-virgin trains and only have signal boosters fitted for Orange services. At least that was what was fitted, god knows what Arriva have done to them in the 3 years they’ve been neglecting them.

    BlobOnAStick
    Full Member

    It comes from the fact that the windows have a metallic content to prevent solar gain in the sunshine (it helps keep the air conditioning load down in the summer). Of course the rest of the carriage is effectively a Faraday cage, preventing microwaves from leaving the carriage.

    When Virgin wanted to install signal boosters, the only mobile company who agreed to working with them was Orange. Once the electric trains (Pendolinos) came to be fitted, all of the operators were willing to co-operate so the internal boosters handle all operators.

    Most of the Voyager units were passed over to Arriva when they won the Cross country franchise, and I don’t belive they’ve done anything with them since (possibly even maintain the boosters that were installed for Orange mobiles)

    speaker2animals
    Full Member

    AAAArgh can’t you talk crap to someone for the time you’re on the train.Shame. What is the world coming to.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

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