This will introduce Japanese high-speed technology to Britain, and it represents a different approach to the TGV-derived Eurostars. A further 15 minutes is set to be cut with the opening of section 2, expected in late 2007.Ī fleet of 225km/h domestic Hitachi-built EMUs is due to begin operation on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from about 2009, 30 years after the UK-designed advanced passenger train first ran at above this speed on sections of the West Coast Main Line. Eurostar, which for long had operated trains on its British leg at a maximum speed of just 160km/h (99.4mph), compared with 300km/h (186mph) on purpose-built French ligne à grande vitesse (LGV), was immediately able to reduce journey times from London by 15 minutes. The opening of section 1 of Channel Tunnel Rail Link in 2003 brought the first scheduled high-speed rail operation in Britain. Thankfully for Virgin West Coast, the high-performance levels of the Pendolinos and line-speed improvements undertaken on the WCML (with a new maximum speed of 200km/h and extensive tilt operation) meant the impact of the failure to implement 225km/h operation has been largely mitigated. In the end, the development of the signalling system proved impossible in the timescale agreed and, under the aegis of the Strategic Rail Authority, was dropped in 1999. With at least nine other WCML freight and passenger operators this proved to be a difficult issue which was never completely resolved. “For now, the maximum speed operated on domestic services remains at 200km/h.”Īs well as problems developing the technology – which would have been the first installation of European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) level 3 anywhere in the world – there were also question marks about who would pay for fitting on-board equipment to trains used by other operators. But there was a problem: the technology had yet to be deployed at these speeds anywhere in the world. The operation hinged on a controversial deal signed with the then track authority, Railtrack, in 1995 to fit radio-based moving block system signalling, felt to be the only way in which sufficient line capacity to justify 225km/h operation could be generated. Again, it was on the WCML, where passenger franchise Virgin West Coast planned to replace its 175km/h services with 225km/h Pendolino tilting Alstom-built EMUs. Signalling was also behind the most recent failed attempt to operate domestic services at more than 200km/h. Tests at the design speed of 225km/h were undertaken with great success but the need to alter signalling on the entire 628km (390-mile) route proved too costly and the new trains were restricted to the 200km/h at which the diesel high-speed trains already operated.
While electrification of the East Coast Main Line continued in parallel with development of the Intercity 225, it was quickly decided not to fit the new trains for tilt operation, though they were designed with provision for the equipment to be retro-fitted.
Advances in traction technology meant that whereas the APT needed two power cars in the middle of the train the Intercity 225 could rely on a single 4.7MW Class 91 electric locomotive operating in push-pull mode.
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The project was dropped in the mid-1980s and a new series of 175km/h (109mph) locomotives were ordered for the WCML instead.įailure of the APT project nonetheless represented a lesson learned, and when confirmation of a programme to electrify the East Coast Main Line was announced a new generation of 225km/h (140mph) locomotives and coaches was designed. Advanced hydro-pneumatic braking gave consistent problems, as did the then revolutionary tilt system and today it seems little could have been done to iron out these issues. The APT was a project designed to make the most of existing infrastructure, and to stop within existing signalling sections. “250km/h is considered the minimum for rail to compete effectively with air.”
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