APT 30 years on article: You'd think the BBC would get it right?

[shakey1961]

Interesting article about the APT, but don't you think they'd have someone to check they have the correct pictures?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35061511

It's 30 years since the Advanced Passenger Train carried its last passengers. In its short life it attracted scorn and mockery, but did the APT actually revolutionise the world of travel?

Trains didn't used to tilt. They just ran quickly along straight lines and then slowed down when they came to a bend.

These days, passengers on Italian-designed Pendolino trains on the UK's West Coast Main Line think nothing of listing as they make their way to destinations at speeds well in excess of 100mph, even through windy sections. Those travelling from Paris to the Cote D'Azur, or in Switzerland, China and Japan experience the same sensation.

What's often forgotten is that much of the technology enabling trains to tilt as they enter bends - using sensors and hydraulic jacks - was developed in the UK....

I've informed them it's the wrong pic of a "Pendolino" and pointed them to this instead.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Pendolino_at_Milton_Keynes_Central.JPG

 

[Quakkerillo]

Because nobody can make mistakes? I'd say it's a minor thing compared to a good article (I think),

 

[route:oxford]

Human beings often get things a touch wrong.

It's stll a Virgin branded tilting train whether it is a Pendolino or a Voyager.

 

[shakey1961]

Of course people can make mistakes. I would hope they would appreciate pointing out the error and correcting it

 

[Polarbear]

Actually, for the BBC, that's not too bad. Ok, the caption isn't a Pendolino, but it does tilt & is operated by Virgin.

Unfortunately, the whopper that the BBC don't appear to have noticed is that TGV's don't tilt! It will a long wait for anyone waiting to sample a tilting train between Paris & Southern France!

 

[jopsuk]

The article doesn't claim the TGV tilts. It merely mentions TGV as being a project that was contemporary to APT- but so well funded that it got its own lines (it maybe should say that that removed any need for tilt).

THey have however illustrated that with a picture of the LGV Est test train that recently crashed killing many people. A picture of an original orange Sud Est set would be rather better taste.

 

[DarloRich]

Edit - blindness.

Clearly they haven't changed the picture

 

[dk1]

Well done for pointing it out. That sort of thing irritates me too. Glad they didn't go for that awful picture of a Pendolino with the front nose doors open that the Manchester Evening News seem to insist on using

 

[adc82140]

I noticed that too. Have sent them a polite email pointing out the error.

 

[yorksrob]

It's good that they're recognising it's technical achievements, even though the photo might be incorrect.

 

[AM9]

The article doesn't claim the TGV tilts. It merely mentions TGV as being a project that was contemporary to APT- but so well funded that it got its own lines (it maybe should say that that removed any need for tilt).

THey have however illustrated that with a picture of the LGV Est test train that recently crashed killing many people. A picture of an original orange Sud Est set would be rather better taste.

I agree that a TGV contemporary of the ATP would be more appropriate but wouldn't accuse them of bad taste just because the library picture of a LGV Est train happens to be the one that had crashed. Only an enthusiast would notice that, and they should have a more rational response to the fact that the picture just represents a type of train.

 

[adc82140]

It's been changed. Correct photo now showing.

 

[TheNewNo2]

Looking at the APT, from the side it's a slightly more angular AT300.

 

[neilb62]

Ah they've trotted the stock 390 pic out, Driven by yours truly....

 

[Philip Phlopp]

The nice people at Alstom in Preston will be a little upset, I guess. The traction package underneath all that Italian tilting nonsense is very firmly British, and really rather good.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The nice people at Alstom in Preston will be a little upset, I guess. The traction package underneath all that Italian tilting nonsense is very firmly British, and really rather good.

The Pendolino is a good EMU generally. The main comfort issues could be resolved by reseating it - while I'm in a way glad First West Coast didn't happen, in another I'd love to have seen what they intended to do with the interiors, which I believe involved fully new seating.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The nice people at Alstom in Preston will be a little upset, I guess. The traction package underneath all that Italian tilting nonsense is very firmly British, and really rather good.

I noticed that a recent Pendolino order for NTV in Italy used an Italian traction package: http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...iew/ntv-signs-EUR460m-pendolino-contract.html
So it looks like Preston doesn't have a monopoly of Pendolino electrics.
They also have a new front end: http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...ntv-unveils-futuristic-pendolino-styling.html

 

[HSTEd]

Unfortunately, the whopper that the BBC don't appear to have noticed is that TGV's don't tilt! It will a long wait for anyone waiting to sample a tilting train between Paris & Southern France!

What about that tilting TGV prototype

 

[trainplan1]

The nice people at Alstom in Preston will be a little upset, I guess. The traction package underneath all that Italian tilting nonsense is very firmly British, and really rather good.

Slightly OT but that traction package was meant to go under a Class 180 esque body as Alstom's bid for the IEP project wasn't it?

 

[Deepgreen]

Interesting article about the APT, but don't you think they'd have someone to check they have the correct pictures?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35061511

I've informed them it's the wrong pic of a "Pendolino" and pointed them to this instead.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Pendolino_at_Milton_Keynes_Central.JPG

What are "windy sections"? If they mean curving (rather than breezy), they should say so! "Winding" would be OK, too. The BBC's standards of accuracy and grammar have been falling steadily recently.

 

[Polarbear]

The article doesn't claim the TGV tilts. It merely mentions TGV as being a project that was contemporary to APT- but so well funded that it got its own lines (it maybe should say that that removed any need for tilt).

True - I'll admit I only skim-read the article on my way into work today at a rather early hour!

 

[DaveNewcastle]

What are "windy sections"? If they mean curving (rather than breezy), they should say so! "Winding" would be OK, too. The BBC's standards of accuracy and grammar have been falling steadily recently.

I was puzzled by that for a moment too. A flatulent railway? Don't let their downwards spiraling standards wind you up!

 

[RobShipway]

What are "windy sections"? If they mean curving (rather than breezy), they should say so! "Winding" would be OK, too. The BBC's standards of accuracy and grammar have been falling steadily recently.

I think that meant to say 'Winding sections' or sections of the track that have curves to them.

 

[AM9]

I think that meant to say 'Winding sections' or sections of the track that have curves to them.

I think he knew as soon as he read it. He just wanted to have a rant.

 

[grumblingalong]

Just as a note the image is now of a 390.

 

[6Gman]

Human beings often get things a touch wrong.

It's stll a Virgin branded tilting train whether it is a Pendolino or a Voyager.

Surely it should refer to winding sections of the WCML. Aren't the windy sections those where it blows a lot?

 

[krus_aragon]

I was puzzled by that for a moment too. A flatulent railway? Don't let their downwards spiraling standards wind you up!

Nah, they were probably thinking of an atmospheric railway...

 

[RobShipway]

Nah, they were probably thinking of an atmospheric railway...

I had thought that write of the piece may have been writing the story while travelling on a Pendolino on the WCML, with a Window open. But then I remembered there is no windows to open on a Pendolino is there?

 

[zn1]

APT wasnt a failure - the project was closed down, and the 225 project started - An APT squadron was built without tilt and reclassed rebranded as class 91 and the mk4 fleet..if tilt packs had been installed there u have a fully operating fleet - APT is alive and kicking - just in a different package...

 

[ivanhoe]

APT wasnt a failure - the project was closed down, and the 225 project started - An APT squadron was built without tilt and reclassed rebranded as class 91 and the mk4 fleet..if tilt packs had been installed there u have a fully operating fleet - APT is alive and kicking - just in a different package...

Indeed, it was not a failure. The only failure was of the political establishment who could not countenance something positive coming from the Public Sector. Imagine what a few more years of additional funding could have been worth to UK plc. I always sigh when I pass Crewe station and the APT museum piece.