Telecoms – What you'll do

Telecoms Maintenance Engineering Technicians work in a variety of places in and around the track. Because much of the equipment is in safe areas (away from the track), much of the time you could be working on your own (once you've completed your apprenticeship). If you're working trackside, you will be working within a team. This is to ensure maximum safety - with one or more members of the team being the lookout while the rest of the team do the work.

These are the areas that we work on:

We are introducing a new Railway Communication System which employs a Fixed Telecoms Network (FTN) (which uses fibre and copper cabling to transmit information quickly and efficiently) and radio masts to enable driver to signaller communication nationwide for the first time. We are currently building the network to deliver this.

Cables comprise copper and fibre optic cables. Copper is specifically for signal box or telephone exchanges. Fibre optic cables are used for a wide variety of purposes including CCTV.

Public Emergency Telephone Systems provide communication between level crossings and the controlling signal boxes.

Cab Secure Radio provides the existing system for signaller to driver communication; helping the signaller to know which train driver they are speaking to (and vice versa). This ensures instructions are given only to the specific driver affected and no other.