Freight rail communications are to finally enter the 4G age, with the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) announcing a communications upgrade to reach more than 3000 sites.
The ARTC said the Telstra-led upgrade will also position it to eventually adopt 5G.
The upgrade of the National Train Communications System (NTCS) will be complete by June 2024, the ARTC said.
Providing “additional communications service options and increased capability”, the organisation said the upgrade will benefit both the ARTC and train operators.
Telstra is already working at 81 locations, including nine additional mobile tower sites and 13 tunnel upgrades.
“Some of these additional locations will provide further community benefits in the form of improved mobile phone coverage in remote areas”, the ARTC said.
A company called Base2 is working with the corporation and its customers to upgrade 1600 locomotive units to an integrated communications platform (dubbed ICE by the ARTC) to operate on the upgraded network.
ARTC group executive engineering and systems Brad Moorhouse said the upgrade will “primarily support train to train control communications, network maintenance staff, and network control on both freight and passenger services across the ARTC network.”
He said the ICE upgrade covers “freight, passenger, maintenance, and heritage fleets”.
“The upgrade ensures the continued provision of the interoperable communications system to provide a single, interoperable, and reliable method of operational voice communications between train crew and network controllers across large parts of Australia.”
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