A joint venture comprising specialist elements of IT firms Hitachi and Telent is awarded a contract of more than 13 years to implement infrastructure to support passenger and operational communications

HS2 Ltd has signed a near-£100m deal for commercial partners to design and implement telecoms services across the new rail network, including voice and data for passengers.

The contract for third-party telecommunications systems came into effect on 3 February and lasts for a little more than 13 and a half years. The agreement is valued at £99.6m, inclusive of VAT, and was awarded to a joint venture comprised of specialist units from tech firms Hitachi and Telent.

The combined entity of the two companies will first deliver “design and build” of telecoms infrastructure before acting as the “interim operator” of the implemented platforms. Once these two stages are complete, “the works will be handed over to a long-term operating partner”, according to a newly published procurement notice.

In the meantime, the joint venture “will be responsible for the design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning” of a range of telecommunications platforms that will support HS2.

This includes “passenger communication systems… infrastructure to support the provision of voice and data mobile communications for HS2 users in stations and on the trains throughout the HS2 estate”.

In delivering these services, the providers will have to engage and manage commercial engagements with the UK’s four mobile network operators: EE; O2; Three; and Vodafone.

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Also covered by the contract with the Hitachi-Telent JV is the deployment of infrastructure to support the new Emergency Services Network. These systems will “support coverage in stations, tunnels, depots and line of route to facilitate mobile communications for emergency response operations”.

In the coming years, the suppliers will also be responsible design and delivery of a data network covering all HS2 stations. This infrastructure will “support both operational and public connectivity within all HS2 stations… and will include transmission services (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, ESN and mobile cellular) to station operational systems, retail systems, customer information, customer communication and business systems”, says the notice.

Once complete, the HS2 programme will deliver a new high-speed rail link between London an the West Midlands. Plans for stages 2a and 2b of the project – which would have extended north to Crewe and Manchester, respectively – were scrapped in 2023.

The delivery of the new rail infrastructure is being overseen by HS2 Ltd, a company wholly owned by government which operates as non-departmental public body, under the watch of the Department for Transport.