InterCity 225

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InterCity 225 set in original InterCity Livery

Class 91/1, no. 91118 ‘Bradford Film Festival’ at Peterborough on 27th July 2003. This locomotive is painted in GNER blue livery.

The InterCity 225 is the fastest domestic train in the United Kingdom, comprising a Class 91 electric locomotive, nine Mark IV coaches and a Driving Van Trailer. The Class 91 locomotive was built by BREL at Crewe works as a spin off from the Advanced Passenger Train project, which had been abandoned during the 1980s. More information about High Speed Trains in the United Kingdom can be found here.

[edit] Service history

The InterCity 225 entered service with British Rail on the East Coast Main Line in 1990. The units also operate on a small section of the West Coast Main Line between Glasgow and Carstairs. In 1996, as part of the privatisation of British Rail, all of the existing InterCity 225s were sold to HSBC Rail, which now leases them to GNER.

The InterCity 225 is still the fastest loco-hauled train running in the UK, with a top speed of 225 km/h; during a test run on Stoke Bank between Peterborough and Grantham an Intercity 225 reached 260 km/h. Except on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, British block signaling does not normally allow trains to exceed 200 km/h, however, mainly due to the braking technology currently in use. The Advanced Passenger Train of the early 1980s used a new hydrokinetic braking system to allow it to brake from 249 kph within existing signalling distances. It is believed that the project was originally to be called APT-U but this name was dropped after the failure of the previous APT-P trains and to avoid the negative publicity related to the APT. The project was then renamed InterCity 225, whilst much of the tilting technology of the APT re-appeared on the Italian Pendolino electric multiple unit design over a decade later, which in turn spawned the Alsthom Class 390 units.

A refurbished First Class carriage.

Between late 2003 and April 2006 GNER and Bombardier Transportation undertook a complete rebuilding and refurbishment programme for the Mark IV coaches, called Project Mallard. See British Rail Mark 4 for more details.