Flying Scotsman can be industry’s glamorous figurehead
It seems to me that our national media love a bad rail story… and there are currently plenty to choose from.
Unfair fares, cancelled projects, late-running statistics, hard seats, driver-only disputes - some of the newspaper columnists even still harp on about the sandwiches, such is their lack of imagination.
Apparently the rail industry doesn’t want to respond - or does, and the message gets lost.
Surely someone can come up with a positive news story - and one which the media appreciates and reports accordingly. And not just a one-day wonder - something with substance and enduring photo opportunities. So, what then? Why not think Concorde. The British airline industry puffed out its chest in the 1980s and 1990s, as people stopped to gaze up into the sky in awe, while celebrities glided down the airport walkways with the paparazzi on hand to record the comings and goings. American airlines were green with envy as the publicists used Concorde to their advantage.
So, what iconic brand has our rail industry to offer?
Flying Scotsman, of course - both the locomotive and the named train.
For the latter, there is a four-hour southbound one-stop flyer already - neatly hidden away and currently scheduled to depart Edinburgh at the unearthly hour of 0540, and in one direction only. Not many publicists, photographers (or indeed people) around at that time.
Concorde left London Heathrow for New York at the prestigious time of 1100. The Flying Scotsman used to depart King’s Cross at 1000 sharp. Surely it still should.
With the new Azumas on the East Coast Main Line, it should be possible to allow driver changeovers on the move, so a non-stop high-profile run in under four hours is certainly achievable… if the will is there.
Don’t let Network Rail or the Department for Transport say there are no paths. Find one. Make one. Start thinking ‘can-do’ for the sake of the beleaguered UK rail industry.
And why not invite someone like Sir Sean Connery to flag away the first non-stop Flying Scotsman from Edinburgh Waverley? Make celebrity invitations part and parcel of the glamour and mystique of a flamboyant 1000 departure each day in our capital cities, which has photo editors clearing space on a regular basis.
Come on Britain’s rail chiefs. Start blowing trumpets. Stop being defensive and think big.