Intercity farce as new £5.7bn train springs leak on f irst journey
Not enough seats ... and it arrives 41 minutes late!
IT was hailed as a new dawn for high-speed rail.
The first new intercity train for 40 years was launched with fireworks, a light show and a VIP visit from Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.
But the initial journey of the new fleet of diesel-electric hybrid trains soon turned to disaster.
The Hitachi Class 800, backed by the Government, departed late, arrived even later and wrecked at least one passenger’s computer with leaky air conditioning.
Many who had paid more than £200 for a standard return ticket had to stand for the two-hour journey from Bristol to London. And the first train going the other way was cancelled.
Ministers are pinning their hopes on the £5.7billion ‘bi-mode’ fleet that will be introduced over the next few years to help transform Britain’s railways by boosting capacity and delivering a faster and more comfortable service.
But the launch started to go off track yesterday before the train had even left Bristol Temple Meads station. Unspecified ‘technical issues’ meant it did not leave until 6.25am – 25 minutes late.
Then, with Mr Grayling on board, it came to a halt for ten minutes shortly after leaving Reading, just as it was due to switch from diesel to electric at Maidenhead. Great Western Railway blamed a ‘minor technical fault’ after the train stopped at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, 22 miles from Paddington.
It eventually pulled in at 8.25am – 41 minutes late. The broken air conditioning unit caused water to cascade into a carriage, damaging a passenger’s laptop. It meant air conditioning on the whole train had to be turned off.
Passenger Craig McCrum, 38, said he was ‘not surprised’ at the performance of the train because ‘GWR is a complete shambles’. Mr McCrum, who commutes from Chippenham, Wiltshire, to Moorgate in the City of London, added: ‘I pay the best part of £10,000 a year for this. It’s pretty poor. They always say, “Wait for the new trains, things will improve”. They’ll never improve.’
The first service to Wales was meant to leave London for Cardiff at 8.15am – but was cancelled.
Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns insisted there are always ‘teething problems’ with new technology.
For the new trains, the Government has paid £5.7billion to Agility Trains, a consortium of Japanese giant Hitachi and Carlisle-based infrastructure firm John Laing Group.
The first of the 57-strong fleet are being introduced from now into the next year on GWR. They will then be brought in on Virgin East Coast.
The trains, built in County Durham, can go faster than the old intercity trains – with a top speed of 140mph rather than 125mph.
But they will be limited to a maximum speed of 125mph, unless Britain’s railways are upgraded.
A ten-carriage Hitachi 800 will carry 652 people – up to 130 more than the old intercity trains. They also offer more leg room, better Wifi and fully fitted kitchens.
The Department for Transport said the launch was the ‘beginning of a huge change for passengers’ that will deliver more than 4,000 seats into London Paddington in the morning peak, and more than 12,000 extra seats into London Kings Cross by the end of 2020.
Mr Grayling said: ‘These new state-of-the-art trains show our commitment to put passengers at the heart of everything that we do and will carry people across Britain, from Swansea to Aberdeen and London to Inverness.’
A GWR spokesman said: ‘Unfortunately, the train was delayed this morning due to a minor technical matter…These trains have been running successfully on UK tracks for over two years and recently passed the industry standard 5,000 miles running without a fault. Hitachi will be investigating this matter thoroughly.’
Karen Boswell, managing director of Hitachi Rail Europe, said: ‘We are really sorry. We can and will do better.’