The Anonymous Widower

High Speed Diesel Trains to the Rescue

The trains out of Paddington are some of the most overcrowded in the UK. So First Great Western are doing the sensible thing and adding an extra coach to their High Speed Diesel Trains. Currently, their trains have a two power car plus eight coach formation, whereas those on the East Coast are two plus nine.

So they have found a source of redundant buffet cars and these are being re-manufactured and fitted with seats, as reported here on the BBC.

Some reports are a bit sniffy about this approach and have called it rather stopgap.

But I would say it is a tribute to the design of the High Speed Diesel Train, that has always been capable of sandwiching any number of coaches up to nine between the two diesel power cars.

What puzzles me, is why wasn’t this simple idea, carried out sooner. But then those in the Department for Transport didn’t want anything to get in their way of their trips to Japan to clear the way for Hitachi.

Long after those civil servants have retired, High Speed Diesel Trains and their Mk III coaches will still be running.

March 10, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | First Great Western Trains, InterCity 125, Paddington Station, Trains