Skype on trains

Andy Abramson delights in the fact that Wi-fi is available on the Heathrow Express, and commenter Ian Wild points out that it’s also available on GNER’s services between London and Scotland.

But there’s one more — and here’s a summary table to show you where you can find wireless connections on trains in Great Britain:

Operator	Route	First Class	Standard Class	Wi-fi provider
GNER	London King’s Cross — Leeds/Edinburgh/Glasgow/Aberdeen/Inverness	Free	£5 per hour *	Selected trains
Heathrow Express	London Paddington — Heathrow	£5 per hour	£5 per hour	All trains
Southern	London Victoria — Brighton	£5 per hour	£5 per hour	Selected trains

Other operators who are considering installing Wi-fi equipment include South West Trains, who operate between London Waterloo and the south west of England, and Virgin Trains, between London Euston, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. With any luck, it won’t be long before Wi-fi on trains is as common as the wrong kind of snow.

* Prices correct as of the time of posting, obviously, so they may change in the future. GNER’s service will be free to all passengers when the franchise changes hands later this year.

Comments

Has anyone actually used Skype on the GNER trains? Or used it for anything other than painfully slow web browsing?

Whilst you can't deny WiFi is available, I normally find it faster to use a GPRS connection on my mobile. Which somewhat defeats a lot of the point imho.

The satellite link also re-joins earth in Sweden, which due to Google trying to be a little too clever, results in all GNER wifi users getting their Google action from google.se

I can't say I've used it on the GNER services - the Heathrow Express variety worked pretty well the last time I used it though.

The question is, does your mobile operator allow you to use Skype with their internet connection?