National Express East Coast has replaced its core network to support growing requirements for data processing as well as a series of customer-facing applications.

The decision to upgrade came shortly after the business won the eight-year franchise to operate the East Coast railway network in August 2007. It followed a realisation that the network introduced by the previous franchisee GNER would not be robust enough to cater for the company’s future plans.

"Even though we had inherited a brand new network from GNER, we have seen a rapid increase in the business bandwidth and data circulation requirements and consequently, the need to extend the work our predecessor had carried out," said the head of procurement at National Express East Coast, Dave Edwards.

National Express East Coast chose to continue the relationship with Cable & Wireless subsidiary Thus to carry out the work, which covered a total of 23 locations over the 600 miles between London and Aberdeen, the company's main headquarters in York, three rolling stock depots and its call centre, as well as major stations.

The network in place at the train operator is based on multi-protocol label switching IP virtual private network technology. Using the network, the business expects to improve customer service and internal communication to support complex data processing requirements.

"Because of our complex and diverse operations, we have a lot of data being transmitted, much of it business-critical, time-critical and safety-critical," said Edwards.

"There are everyday communications associated with management, retail and customer service. There's also data that has a direct impact on service and safety in real time, such as timetable data and live train data."

The new network is expected to provide the extra capacity needed for upcoming systems, such as onboard CCTV, an electronic point of sale platform and live updates to be delivered customers via mobile phone. The company is also working on an electronic gating application, which will process fare information and report any maintenance requirements, to be introduced in the third quarter of 2009.

Apart from reducing costs associated with the previous setup, the company said the network has improved service levels, resilience and reliability. "I'd say it's been a sound investment," said Edwards.