Problems dog fast train

Press, 20 October 1981, Page 7

Problems dog fast train

By

KEN COATES

in London

“Now is the age of the train/’ runs British Rail’s advertising. But while passenger services are way ahead of anything. New Zealand Railways can offer, still further delays have been announced for the “train of the new age,” the advanced passenger train. Stung by French celebrations designed to show 7 off their new T orange 260km/h train, the world's fastest, which runs between Paris and Lyons, British Rail has announced plans for a new 200km/h service on the electrified London-Glasgow route.

This will enable problems with the advanced passenger train to be sorted out. It is already 10 years behind schedule with technical problems, and is not expected to

be in service before 1987. British Rail is also trying to counter a threat from air services — British Airways will introduce . the largecapacity Boeing 757 on the London-Scotland run in the mid-1980s.

When the new train goes into service, with air-condi-tioned carriages, it will be the first big improvement since the main line was electrified 15 years ago. British Rail has already sunk $9O million in developing the advanced train which maintains a speed of up to 200 km/h on curves by tilting. a revolutionary feature which has proved to be nothing but trouble for engineers. The present rail journey from London to Glasgow is about five hours; the new 200 km/h train will cut 15 minutes off . that time, arid the advanced train will cut it to four hours 10 minutes.