. . . in The Times today:
however, it says a lot about the state of our modernised railway that no train on the line will ever emulate the Mallard's record-breaking 126mph run. The speed limit today is 125mph. . . .
Yes, it IS ironic. GC have achieved something which is almost impossible (well, when it all runs as it should, anyway), but by concentrating traction and infrastructure developments over the past century on safety and very little on high speed infrastructure, has made only marginal improvements in speed.
The Mallard record a hundred years ago was, of course, just a one-off. The regular high speed services on the ECML began in 1935 with the once-a-day service KingsX - Newcastle in exactly 4 hours.
But seventy three years later, GC can still only shave 15mins off that time from KingsX - Sunderland. All the "improvements" from electronic signalling, dual turbo-diesel engines, welded track, streamlined aluminium bodies and more, and we get just 6% off the journey time.
(Okay, most of the slow movement is on the East Durham coast, but you can see what I mean).
I really hope that GC can weather the PC problems and can demonstrate that even market forces (their passengers!) demand better that the current offering from UK railways.
