Transport For London

Overview

In May 2010 the Mayor of London pledged that Wi-Fi would be available on over 100 below-ground London Underground stations to provide connectivity for the athletes, coaches, officials, and spectators of the 2012 London Olympics.

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Providing connectivity to stations and platforms would enable Transport for London (TfL) staff and volunteers to access real-time information to assist those customers as part of its Travel Ambassador programme.

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Delivering Wi-Fi to Underground stations for the first time would also improve the travelling experience for millions of commuters and visitors to London by facilitating access to the internet, social media, and other online applications whilst on the move.

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As a proven delivery partner to TfL and it’s supply chain, Installation Technology was chosen to lead on the delivery of this connectivity ‘first’ for the London Underground.

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Approach

The London Underground is the world’s oldest underground system; the first line between Paddington and Farringdon was opened in 1863! This makes it an extremely challenging environment to work and install modern services in. 

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The majority of our work needed to be completed in the 4-hour period overnight when train services are not running, with work sites tidied away at the end of each work shift to allow the millions of daily passengers to traverse the network safely. With only 2 years to design, build and commission the solution, this was set to be an extremely challenging delivery programme.

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We recognised that the delivery of Wi-Fi within the London underground would be the first step in TfL’s wider ambition to improve connectivity right across the Capital.  We invested significant time and resources to gain a comprehensive understanding of TfL’s objectives as part of our design process to ensure our Wi-Fi solution would align with their broader connectivity strategy.

Solution

Critically, to accommodate TfL’s wider ambition, the solution had to be designed in a way that would allow for significant future expansion.

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Working with the relevant stakeholders we co-created a high-capacity Cisco-based Wi-Fi design, to be controlled from 2 data centres in London for resilience, with a scalable design that catered for TfL’s future expansion requirement.

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To maintain close collaboration throughout the programme, we co-located our project team with TfL’s team at their premises in Victoria.

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The first 6 months were focused on engaging with all the relevant stakeholders, creating the solution design, and gaining the necessary approvals for implementation within a busy operational environment. With only 18 months remaining to install and commission the hundreds of kilometres of Cat 5 cabling, Cisco PoE switches and over 3,000 Wireless Access Points, the idea of connecting all the in-scope stations before the Opening Ceremony seemed, to many, to be impossible. 

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To achieve the ‘impossible’, we created a detailed implementation plan that assumed a workforce of over 250 personnel working 7 days a week at over 100 stations and platforms in scope, included many large high footfall stations such as Leicester Square, Liverpool Street, Oxford Circus, King’s Cross St. Pancras, and Stratford.

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TfL supported us by making some of their most experienced engineers and project managers available to help us meet the Mayor’s commitments. Coupling this with our 20-years of experience working within the London Underground, created a formidable team that was the key factor in delivering the solution in time for the Opening Ceremony!

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Since the Olympics, we have expanded the solution to cover over 300 London Underground and Overground stations. Installation Technology has been supporting this network since 2012, through our 24 x 7 field engineering service.