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), you could be working on your own quite a bit (once you've completed your apprenticeship). Or you could be working with a trackside team. You never work alone on the track to maximise safety – at least one person in the team keeps lookout while the rest work on the track.

These are the areas that we work on:

We’re 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’re 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’re speaking to (and vice versa). This helps to make sure instructions are given only to the specific driver affected and no other.