Wifi on trains delayed until 2017

PLANS to introduce wifi internet access on every train in France have been delayed until 2017, with high-speed TGVs the first to benefit from the new service.

Barbara Dalibard, director of SNCF Voyageurs, told BFM Business that the SNCF was working mobile phone operators "to ensure coverage is good enough".

SNCF chief executive Guillaume Pépy had previously announced that all French trains would have wireless internet connectivity by the end of 2016, with an investment of €150m.

The roll-out of wifi will now start in 2017 with the 450-strong fleet of long-distance TGVs.

The idea has been floated for at least five years. In the early years the SNCF tested out a connection using satellite, but this worked out too expensive and technologically difficult. The new system will instead use 3G and 4G mobile internet access.