London's Underground is getting closer to full mobile coverage
You can now doomscroll through even more of your Tube journey
For generations of Londoners, hopping on the Tube has meant temporarily vanishing from society.
One minute you're replying to messages, checking football scores and pretending to listen to a voice note. Next, you're trapped in a signal-free metal tube beneath the city, blissfully unaware of whatever fresh chaos has unfolded online.
That increasingly rare moment of peace is rapidly disappearing. Transport for London has announced that more sections of the London Underground now have 4G and 5G coverage, bringing the network another step closer to full connectivity by the end of the year.
The latest rollout covers sections of the Bakerloo, Circle, District and Metropolitan lines, while stations including Vauxhall, Gloucester Road, Temple and Nine Elms have also gone live.
Major transport hubs, including King's Cross St Pancras, Victoria and Paddington, are now beginning to receive coverage too, although TfL says these stations will be connected in phases because of their size and complexity.
The new additions mean around 60 per cent of stations classified as underground now have mobile coverage.
Among the newly connected stretches are:
- Bakerloo line between Queen's Park and Edgware Road
- Metropolitan line between Euston Square and King's Cross St Pancras
- Metropolitan line between Barbican and Moorgate
- Circle and District lines between Cannon Street and Monument
- Circle and District lines between Sloane Square and Victoria
- Circle line between Bayswater and Paddington
It's all part of TfL's long-running mission to eliminate one of London's most persistent blackspots.
Hundreds of engineers have been working overnight to install the infrastructure, squeezing the project into the few hours available when trains stop running. TfL says most of the Northern, Bakerloo and Metropolitan lines will have tunnel coverage by the end of the summer, with the entire Underground network expected to be connected before the end of 2026.
The rollout involves all four major UK mobile operators: EE, Vodafone, Three and Virgin Media O2.
And while uninterrupted Instagram scrolling might be the most obvious benefit, TfL is keen to stress there's a more serious side to the project. The network will also support the Emergency Services Network, allowing first responders to access critical data and communications underground during emergencies.
Still, for most Londoners, the biggest impact may simply be that familiar panic when a message won't send becoming a thing of the past.
Whether that's progress or the final death of the last socially acceptable excuse for ignoring emails on your commute is another question entirely.
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