Wi-fi on trains is a “necessity” for modern, 21st century British life, shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle has claimed.
Eagle made the claim at the Labour party conference, which is taking place in Brighton this week, uk.news.yahoo.com reports. The Garston and Halewood MP said that, in this day and age, wi-fi provision on trains has stopped becoming a luxury and is instead a necessity.
In light of this belief, Eagle called for future train operating contracts to factor in wi-fi provision, with extra preference given to those companies which offer it across the board.
Currently, only a small number of train providers offer wi-fi, and even then, much of it is costed on a per-journey basis. Prices are typically £3 or £4, but may be negated for first-class passengers.
This reliance on paid-for wi-fi comes despite many other industries – such as hospitality – moving away from this approach and instead offering the service for free.
Making her claim, Eagle told metro.co.uk: “In the 21st century, when people are trying to work on the train, part of the service that they get from the train company ought to be free wi-fi, and not just in first class.
“So that is something that I think we should ought to be requiring [on] contracts in the future, because that’s how people work on trains now, using the internet, and so we need to make sure that people can.”
