Successful trials of in-train mobile signal repeaters,  combined with new mobile towers, have paved the way for works to proceed on the $18 million Regional Rail Connectivity Project.

Passengers on the Ballarat line, and those on the Geelong, Bendigo, Traralgon and Seymour lines, and local communities along each corridor will benefit from the signal boost with new mobile towers being built along the five rail lines.

Lucas resident and IT manager Veronica Micich said the new technology would make a massive difference to her commute.

“It will be amazing to be connected the whole way. Working in IT I need to have a consistent method of communication … and at the moment I have to consider myself to be offline during my commute,” Ms Micich said.

Ms Micich catches the train to Melbourne two or three days a week, and is looking forward to using her travel time as productive on-line work time.

“This will allow me to use the time for commuting as desk work time.

“To be able to keep in touch with people, respond to emails, have live interactions and post status reports while I’m in transit … and take a call while I’m on the train will have a big impact on my work life.”

The recently-completed pilot program demonstrated that the in-train technology, coupled with the new towers, will boost coverage from less than 50 per cent to almost full network coverage along the tracks.

As part of the Regional Rail Connectivity Project, the state government will partner with the three major mobile carriers – Telstra, Vodafone and Optus – to build up to 35 new mobile towers. Several of the new phone towers have already been built.

Trains will begin to be fitted with the mobile signal repeater technology from early next year, with the entire VLocity fleet expected to have a a booster on board by the end of 2018.

“In today’s world, digital connectivity is crucial for people’s lifestyles and for doing business. This program is making it fair for regional Victorian passengers by giving them faster, more reliable mobile coverage,” said Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy Philip Dalidakis .

For commuters eagerly awaiting the on-line status of the regional rail system, the news is welcome but they will be waiting longer than they first thought.

In April the government announced that customers would start to see improvements from late 2017, but that has been pushed back to 2018.

A government spokesman said the mobile coverage would improve on more and more trips as the technology was rolled out, and the accompanying productivity boost for regional business passengers would deliver an estimated $20 million per year to the state’s economy.

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Ballarat Public Transport Users Association spokesman Ben Lever said the realisation of the long-awaited project would be a real boost for commuters.

“It’s been a long standing issue on the Ballarat line that we haven’t had very good coverage for mobile or data. Whether you use the train to go to work, study or socialise it will allow commuters to be a lot more productive,” he said.

Mr Lever said the improved connectivity on-board the train would attract more travellers, increasing pressure on some services already operating near capacity.

“It should help increase the numbers, which will add to the pressure but also help justify putting more services on and hopefully fast track infrastructure improvements of the actual rail line itself,” he said.