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| .You are now at the station platform. |
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| As the HST 125 (in Intercity livery before privatisation) passes it makes me realise what the UK has achieved so far. The city of London was the first in the world to see an Underground rail system which opened 1863. The UK also holds the world record for the fastest Steam Engine at 126mph held by the famous Mallard. Unfortunately we also see some non-achievements, the fact that we can still only go at 125mph maximum on our main lines for example. Pretty soon though, if the deal is still going ahead with Richard Branson, we will see tilting trains on our main routes, which will be capable of going faster than 125mph as they tilt round the curves stopping them from coming off the tracks. Another question of mine is that why, if the government are saying we need to act now to improve our rail network, are they not doing anything to start the improving process. Ok, we hear about the 20 million pound scheme on the London Underground network taking place, and can be already seen with the now modernised Central Line with new train stock, the 1995 train stock on the Northern Line, and the 1996 train stock on the Jubilee Line now extended to Stratford, and most of the stations with improvements to them. So where are the main line improvements? We have yet to find out. Why, if they say about the Underground needing to be improved, did they not decide to make the Jubilee line extension tunnels of double structure in size so that, if ever there is a day we Could see double decker trains, this part of the Jubilee line would be ready. If the Underground is seeing an increase in passengers each year, why are they taking so long to increase capacity? The main line improvements, if any, have yet to be seen. The only improvements that I know of Finally are that Railtrack need to get some work done on 32 areas of track by December 2001. It's unfortunate to know that we have had a few rail incidents last year and still hear that nothing has been done to improve safety. Actually, their is word of having all trains to be installed with the TPWS (Train Protection Warning System) system by 2006. Will this improve safety? We can only hope. Will they get all trains fitted with that by then? Sounds unlikely, but we'll see. Other set completion dates are the removal of all slam door trains by the year 2000. Slam door is a nickname for trains that you open the doors manually, then they normally close with a 'slam'. Unfortunately problems with the new stock of trains, like the class 357 'Electrostar' for example, have caused delays and we still see the slam door trains running on some of our main lines. To me that isn't a bad thing, as I grew up travelling on these good old trains and I hate to see them go. This withdrawel date to remove Slam-door trains has now been set to 2006. On this point, the one (& last) 4-SUB in service in Britain is slam door. One problem when it comes to unfortunate incidences on our line is when they look for someone to blame. Take the 2nd from last unfortunate incident when the car came off the motorway (M65) and straight onto the track. The man got out and dialled 999 only for the operator to be talking to him and then suddenly hear the man shout 'A train's coming' and a loud bang when the GNER (Great North Eastern Railway) IC 225 hit, the driver then states that the train has just smashed through his land rover. What was even more unfortunate was that a freight train was coming from the other way, also crashing into the mess. Unfortunately 13 people died from the crash. It took them a day or 2 to come up with that it was neither Railtracks or GNERs or others (railway wise) fault. It was clearly shown it was neithers fault. The car had unfortunately come off the road, why? They don't know. The chance of this ever happening was a very low one, but it happened. |
| .More information to come. |
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