Trains could be monitored from space to improve service Today Mr Willetts will address an EU Space Policy Conference in Brussels, where he will call on Europe to reduce regulations surrounding new scientific innovations. "In the UK we are already working hard to raise awareness of the value of satellite data in a huge range of everyday activities that might not have been previously associated with space," Mr Willetts will say. Airports can stay open in bad weather. Fishing boats can be tracked to put a stop to illegal fishing. Broadband services can be brought to remote areas via satellite. Driverless vehicles are excitingly near. I push the limit of tolerance of my fellow ministers in Government by asking: "Have you though of how space can solve your problem?" But they that is a question all our governments and companies should be asking more. But he added: "From this year, Galileo will provide early services, giving accurate local information anywhere on earth. The joint commitment and investment in the programme has been confirmed and the first satellites show a high quality of signal. The UK is about to build a new high speed train line, HS2 and if we follow EU standards it won't have signalling that uses Galileo. What a missed opportunity. You could map every carriage from space. However there are fears that such system could be dangerous because it would not be precise enough to calculate the position of trains apart from each other. There are also questions as to whether the signal would vanish if a train went through a tunnel, as still happens with mobile phones. Network Rail currently has around 800 signalling centres around Britain which range from 150-year-old Victorian signalling boxes - still with levers and bells - to state of the art control centres. By 2016 they plan to reduce this number to 12 regional centres which will monitor the whole system. A spokesman said there were no plans to adopt Galileo technology. In the coming years Britain trains will adopt a new to new Europe-wide in-cab signalling system which will see the end of traffic-light trackside signalling. "We already use GPS to locate out trains, so in a way we are using satellites in some respect," said a spokesman, "But this new technology is not something we are aware of." Galileo is Europe's own global navigation satellite system, and its makers promise it is so accurate it can be used for "safety-critical" uses such as guiding cars, running trains and landing aircraft. The first two satellites were launched in 2011 and a further two launched in 2012. When fully operational it will be made up of 30 satellites. One of its most ambitious projects is "e-call" - a system which would alert emergency services when a motorist is involved in a crash anywhere in the European Union. Mr Willets said: "The e-call proposal could deliver a transformation in new cars, enabling connected vehicles which can communicate with each other and increase capacity on our busy roads."