Icomera Powers High-Speed Private 5G Rail Trials at Millbrook
On 16 June 2025, England’s Connected Heartland (ECH) programme welcomed government and industry guests to Millbrook Proving Ground for the finale of a three-week testing campaign.
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The objective: to prove that a stand-alone 5G Mobile Private Network, destined for the 33 km Bicester–Bletchley stretch of East West Rail (EWR), could deliver the bandwidth and resilience needed for a truly digital railway. Multiple partners contributed to the project, including Oxfordshire County Council, AWTG, Airspan, and Icomera. Turning a Test Track Into a Rail Laboratory A scaled-down version of the private 5G network was laid along Millbrook’s one-mile straight, with an electric vehicle acting as a train carriage, fitted with train-top antennas and Icomera’s rail-certified mobile connectivity and applications router, replicating the speed of travel and connectivity setup of a modern train. Just as EWR aims to support the shift in travel habits further towards sustainable, green mobility by offering an alternative to car travel along the Oxford–Cambridge Arc, the Millbrook campaign itself kept emissions to a minimum with the battery-electric vehicle logging more than 650 miles of zero-tailpipe-emission high-speed runs. Throughout testing, the system maintained throughput consistently above 500 Mbps – nearly an order of magnitude higher than the typical public network performance experienced on UK trains today, with Icomera’s SureWAN link aggregation protocol managing the seamless aggregation handover between each private 5G network tower, as well as the available public and satellite networks. The results not only demonstrate the performance potential and capacity benefits of a private 5G solution in high-speed rail environments, but also reinforce the important role of SureWAN: if the bandwidth is available – whether along the track, over the horizon, or in orbit – Icomera can aggregate it and deliver it to every device on board. Building the Digital Train and Serving Lineside Communities The primary aim of the project is to provide seamless, high-speed Internet access for passengers on the move, as well as reliable connectivity for onboard digital systems such as live video surveillance, remote condition monitoring, EPOS, and crew communications. As an added benefit, the 5G Mobile Private Network has the potential to improve digital inclusivity for the people living and working alongside East West Rail, with 16,000 properties currently in the scope of the project. While the ECH solution is not suitable for every UK railway, it will suit the EWR route, and the solution is ready to scale across similar regional and national corridors. Initially, the project will connect six C196 trains with the new 5G network, which are currently relying solely on public 4G networks. By building a scalable and future-proof infrastructure, the project supports a more connected, equitable, and digitally enabled transport network, laying the groundwork for smarter, more inclusive mobility across the region. atalie Wheble, External Affairs Director, East West Railway Company, said: Enhanced Wi-Fi connectivity perfectly complements East West Rail’s primary objectives of boosting connectivity and economic growth, so it was great to see this cutting-edge 5G technology under test in Bedfordshire. When it’s rolled out, this exciting project will provide a better passenger experience for customers using EWR services between Bicester and Bletchley, and also for lineside neighbours in more rural areas who have previously struggled to get good Wi-Fi connectivity – this could be a game changing solution for parts of the national railway network. Ashley Dunn, Technical Sales & Key Account Manager, Icomera, said: The Millbrook demonstration showed that Icomera’s mobile hybrid connectivity platform seamlessly combines private 5G, public cellular, and satellite links to deliver multi-hundred-megabit speeds to a fast moving vehicle. If the network is there, we can use it. Tested at speeds that mirror trains in service, this resilient, future-ready digital backbone can transform passenger experience and rail operations along East West Rail and other regional lines. www.icomera.com
