The Latest Peplink News
Product and Solution Information, Press Releases, Announcements

20th August 2015, London: In February 2014, following a devastating storm, the Dawlish railway tracks in Devon, England collapsed and were left hanging in mid-air. Over 300 homes were evacuated due to the flooding that followed. The power was out and public transportation cut off. A national emergency was declared. The UK’s “Cobra” crisis management committee was brought in to handle the situation, with Prime Minister David Cameron eventually taking over the chairmanship. The railway had to be repaired and train service restored within a two-month deadline.

The best contractors were brought in, including Trellisworks, a leading networking solution provider. Trellisworks was put in charge of coming up with a construction communications solution that could be deployed in such an inaccessible environment and withstand challenging weather conditions.

Bam Nuttall, the construction company, required extensive network access to cater to the whole construction site, provisioning guest access as well as visitors, press, and Cabinet office personnel. Bam Nuttall also needed high bandwidth to handle large blueprint file transfers efficiently and securely and the network also needed guaranteed high availability.

Trellisworks chose Peplink and Pepwave devices for their unique ability to create an Unbreakable Cellular Bonding connection. They took in total 8 SIM cards as numerous different providers to create bulletproof WAN diversity. They closed down a large car park and put a cabin in place to house the Pepwave MAX HD2s and HD4 as well to act as a mobile office. Everything was then connected to a Balance 710 at Bam Nuttall’s data center. The resulting solution delivered high bandwidth using bonded cellular connections, high resilience enabled by cellular provider diversity, and military-grade encryption provided by Peplink’s Unbreakable VPN.

Jim Kernahan, co-founder of Trellisworks commented, The challenges of providing robust and reliable connectivity in an environment like Dawlish cannot be underestimated.”

While Rob Youster, IT Director at BAM Nuttall said, “The Peplink solution that Trellisworks created was absolutely vital to the smooth running of this project and ensured that the team on site were able to communicate and collaborate effectively with colleagues who were not based at Dawlish.”

£35 million and less than two months later, train services resumed ahead of schedule. Everyone had a vital part to play in achieving such a remarkable feat, and David Cameron revisited the site to congratulate the team and reopen the tracks. Repair work continues, albeit at a slower pace that accommodates the recently restored train schedule.