The 3G system is going through final testing and is expected to be switched on from next month, ending years of frustration for passengers.
The project to upgrade the telecommunications capabilities of the Melbourne Underground Rail Link was announced by the Napthine Government in May, 2013 and was expected to take just a year.
But more than two years later, commuters are still experiencing a mobile phone blackout in the City Loop.
The upgrades could affect up to 9800 passengers at any one time based on the loop’s capacity of 12 trains carrying 800 passengers each.
The project was delayed when VicTrack, the government enterprise responsible for the upgrades, became aware that they might interfere with the digital radio network used by train drivers.
“The project has ended up being more complex than first thought,” admitted a VicTrack spokesman.
Last month, The Agereported that the upgrades had actually been completed in September, 2014 and that the system could have been switched on from that time. But VicTrack declined to comment on the claims.
It is now expected that the first of the upgrades will be completed shortly with 3G access available from November and 4G by mid-next year.
For many commuters mobile phone access in the loop cannot come fast enough.
“It’s 2015: you can now use wi-fi while you’re flying on a plane 30,000 feet in the air,” Jack Thomas, of Kingsbury, told The Citizen. “Surely it can be available a few hundred metres below the Melbourne CBD.”
Kew resident Emily Van Niel hailed the practical advantages of being able to use mobile phones while travelling beneath the city.
“Having full phone coverage would certainly help in the case of an emergency,” she said.
At the moment, the only options available to passengers for reporting incidents is either to try to contact the driver or to alert Protective Services Officer at an approaching station.
Figures released last week by the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency showed there had been 25 sexual offences and assaults on trains in the CBD in the last financial year alone.
“The way we carry on about ourselves being the world’s most liveable city, the fact that we can’t get phone access when it is definitely possible is a bit of a disgrace.” — loop traveller Julian Hallowell
“It usually takes 10 minutes to get through the loop. As a solo female traveller late at night, that can be a scary trip to make,” said Flora Terrens, of Rosanna.
Live testing of the proposed 3G network began in recent weeks, with some transport users flocking to Twitter to express dismay at suddenly being able to access their network while travelling through the tunnel.
The official Vodafone’ help service on Twitter confirmed last month that some passengers would be able to use their phones during network testing.
Another loop user, Mikhail Ruzhanskiy, of Richmond, was one of the lucky few able to get full reception while travelling through the entire loop.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I kept looking around to see if people were reacting but nobody else seemed to notice.”
Another commuter approached by The Citizen, Julian Hallowell, of Keilor Park, said having phone access in the loop was more a matter of civic pride than one of simple convenience.
“The way we carry on about ourselves being the world’s most liveable city, the fact that we can’t get phone access when it is definitely possible is a bit of a disgrace.”
An estimated 13,000 people use the City Loop daily as more than half of all metropolitan train journeys travel through the loop on their way in or out of the city.