The Anonymous Widower

Are Virgin Trains Going To Go Faster?

With trains, it has always been known, that the faster you go, the more passengers you attract.

So when you get a headline of Virgin mulls 135 mph working in Modern Railways, you suspect that they are working on faster trains.

After all the Class 390 Pendolinos are capable of 140 mph, but are limited to 125 mph in service.

At present, most trains to both Liverpool and Manchester take about eight minutes over two hours from Euston, but one train a day does it in two hours. So to lose that eight minutes and get all trains on the headline-grabbing two hours, would mean an average speed increase of 6.25%.  If the average journey speed bears a direct relationship to the train’s maximum speed, then by increasing the current maxium from 125 mph to 135 mph is a rise of 8.0%.

So is this where the conservative figure of 135 mph came from? It is just enough to get all London to Liverpool and Manchester trains just under that magic two hours, that will give a sensible return for the cost of the extra speed and the track and signalling improvements?

Applying the same rules to the Glasgow time of four hours and thirty minutes, could give a speed reduction to four hours and ten minutes.

So on a rough and ready cakculation, Virgin’s op speed of 135 mph, could bring a great improvement to the West Coast Main Line. Remember that the rebuild of the line in the early 2000s was intended to deliver a London Manchester time of an hour and forty five minutes.

April 29, 2013 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Liverpool, Manchester, Virgin Trains