Eurostar

Selecting the Best Vendor Solution via Technical Trials.

Culminating in 2026 Eurostar conducted an extensive pilot of two different onboard Wi-Fi solutions installed on high-speed trains running between the UK and Europe, in order to compare and evaluate the technical and operational competencies of each.

Eurostar operates an international rail network connecting the UK with France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, on high-speed direct and indirect routes. Eurostar’s current fleet of 51 train sets can reach speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour, and in 2025 transported 20 million passengers, up 3% over the prior year. Passenger Wi-Fi is a popular amenity with passengers, but maintaining a consistently good user experience while passing through multiple countries – and the Channel Tunnel – presents a significant challenge. With Eurostar’s legacy Wi-Fi system showing signs of age, it would be necessary to procure a next-generation on-board communications solution that would deliver the quality of Wi-Fi service expected by customers.

Eurostar selected two Wi-Fi vendors to participate in a limited-time technical pilot that would compare and contrast the performance of the solutions installed on board a single train set running between London, Lille, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. Streamriver and Xentrans – a leading U.S.-based transportation technology consultancy – collaborated to provide Eurostar with Insights Analytics as an independent, unbiased software platform that would measure the quality, reliability, and performance of each solution, collect key operational metrics for analysis, and present reports on how each solution fared on specific route segments. Data from the legacy Wi-Fi solution was also utilized to show how each solution under test might improve service over the older generation.

Insights for Cellular Train-to-Ground Assessment

Like many Wi-Fi solutions for passenger rail, both candidate systems and the legacy system utilize commercial cellular data networks for connecting Eurostar trains to the Internet. Key objectives of the technical pilot were to assess how each solution managed connectivity with available cellular networks; determine whether one solution performed better than another given the same network availability; and identify geographical areas of concern (such as tunnels, cuttings, urban canyons and rural regions) that might impact such connectivity and thus the passenger Wi-Fi experience.

Meeting Passenger Wi-Fi Expectations

At trial commencement, Eurostar already knew approximately how many passengers used the Wi-Fi service on each route, based on legacy system usage. A key objective was to determine whether a new system could deliver a minimum level of connectivity (in Mbps) per passenger, with potential increase in speed over the next several years to meet growth in demand. To achieve this, the successful Wi-Fi solution should be able to deliver consistent connectivity over the route; low latency for a responsive network; manage aggregation of multiple cellular links effectively for the best possible train-to-ground link without relying on one single network carrier; and support typical end-user Wi-Fi activity with no content blocking (e.g., allowing streaming for entertainment and business applications). Through the use of open APIs and other protocols, Insights Analytics was able to ingest key data from each of the three Wi-Fi systems, conduct metrics analysis, and generate detailed reports on a regular basis during the length of the pilot.

The technical trial concluded successfully, and Eurostar is now able to leverage the detailed performance and comparative analysis reports from Insights Analytics to make informed procurement decisions in the future as a result of the technology assessment.

For more information about how Insights Analytics may work inside your organization, please get in touch to arrange a demonstration.