[Shimbleshanks]

Originally Posted by 48111

Look, I know I am old fashioned and I "witter" on about when I worked on the railway, and I used to be quite happy "plodding" along the slow line.

But them trains going so fast, I hear fast trains every day of the week going through Bletchley, they are going very fast and some of the Locos sound like aeroplanes. But apart from the modern way of life, where everybody is in a rush and want things done "yesterday", why speed ? Why on earth does the modern railway want to go faster ?
If ever one of those Virgin cornettos or what ever they are called was going as fast as I hear them and something happened people on the train would not stand a chance of surviving it would be a disaster of the same thing as a aeroplane crash.

Surely service is better than speed, nice clean comfortable trains, that leave "A" on time and arrive at "B" on time, that is it is it not ?

It is all very well travelling at very high speed up there in the sky, but to put machinery on metal rails and send it along at very high speed well that is playing with fate. God forbid that there should ever be another high speed train crash, we hope and pray not, but it cannot be gauranteed, nothing is certain when it comes to transporting flesh and blood encased in machinery travelling at high speed. The human body was not designed to withstand impacts of any sort at those speeds.

Good everyday dependable service is all that should be required.
The train departs on time and is comfortable and clean and arrives at its destination on time with happy and relaxed passengers and indeed traincrew.

You dont need to go fast, you still get there just the same.

48111

Know what you mean, though I think the Pendolinos are pretty safe in a crash. I had to go up to Birmingham International from Euston the other day and took one of the trains that is being operated by a class 90 and mk3 carriages. We were 'only' doing 110mph of course, but it was so nice to go back to comfy seats, big tables and windows you can see out of properly. Most of the time on train journeys these days I need to work and the odd ones don't it's nice to catch up with reading, sleep etc. Maybe it's a sign of old age but these days I find those things more important than getting from A to B in the shortest possible time. If we ever do get High Speed 2 there'll hardly be time to go to the buffet between London and Birmingham.