InterCity 250 was the name of a proposed rolling stock, track and signalling upgrade project on the West Coast Main Line by British Rail in the early 1990s. The InterCity 250 train would have consisted of a Class 93 electric locomotive, nine Mark 5 coaches and a Mark 5 Driving Van Trailer. The project was cancelled in July 1992 before work could begin.[1]
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In 1985, work began to electrify the East Coast Main Line. This project, which saw the line fitted with overhead wires between London Kings Cross and Edinburgh, took five years to complete. At the same time, a new generation of rolling stock was introduced, with the Class 91 electric locomotives combined with the Mark 4 coaching stock to form what was termed the InterCity 225 train system (so called because the Class 91 locomotives had a top speed of 225 km/h).
Upon the completion of the ECML project, British Rail turned to the West Coast Main Line. This had been electrified in several stages over a fifteen-year period between 1959 and 1974. However, unlike the ECML the extensive curvature of the track along the route meant that it was ill suited to running high-speed trains (generally defined in Britain as trains capable of 125 mph or more), and so its services were limited to more modest speeds of 100–110 mph. In order to achieve the same standards as the ECML, major upgrade work of the track, signalling, OLE and a new generation of rolling stock were required.
In the late 1970s, British Rail had planned to address the WCML limitations with the Advanced Passenger Train project this circumvented any requirement to make significant infrastructure changes by using tilting train technology. The project reached the prototype stage, with the introduction of three Class 370 electric multiple units into passenger service in 1981. However, initial failures of the tilt technology led to them being withdrawn. They were then used from 1984 to 1986 as test trains for researching the technologies and specifications required for what would become the Class 91.
In November 1990, British Rail announced the InterCity 250 project, which would address the problems on the WCML through improved track quality, route re-alignments, relaxation of maximum cant on curves to eight degrees (from six), new signalling, improved traction power supplies and between 24 to 40 new trains capable of up to 155 mph (250 km/h) rather than using tilting trains. This would have seen trains starting out at 125 mph around 1994, with incremental increases up to the maximum speed by the end of the 1990s.[2] The East Coast Main Line high speed test site between Stoke Tunnel and New England North, used in the trial runs of the InterCity 225, was likely to have been used in the development and testing of the InterCity 250.[3]
However, rolling stock orders placed by other sectors of British Rail led to a shortage of funding which saw many projects suspended or scrapped. The Class 93 locomotives were to be styled by Seymour Powell[4] and invitations to build the rolling stock were placed on 11 March 1991 with three manufacturers which included GEC-Alsthom Transportation and a joint bid from Siemens (locomotives) and Bombardier Prorail (coaching stock) [5] tendering to provide vehicles with an in-service date of 1995. Because of the impact of the 1990s recession a lack of funding from the Treasury led to the InterCity 250 project being abandoned in 1992.[6] In 1993 it was suggested that the InterCity 250 could provide a suitable specification for future replacement rolling stock on both the Great Western and East Coast Main Lines.[7]
InterCity 250 came at a time when improvements to the West Coast Mainline were desperately needed. However, the infrastructure on the West Coast Main Line was incapable of supporting the operation of 155 mph trains. Consequently the project entailed both the delivery of new rolling stock and the infrastructure changes needed to support them. This included, for example, adopting new track alignments such as using the trackbed of the former Great Central Railway between London and Rugby and resignalling of the West Coast Main Line as far north as Crewe, together with extensive modifications to the existing OLE - supplied by new 25kV auto-transformers. The project was valued at around 750 million pounds[8] but the impact of the 1990s recession and the impending privatisation of British Rail led to it being cancelled in July 1992.
A later proposal in 1993 by BR to manufacture a follow-on set of ten InterCity 225 units for priority express operations on the WCML was rejected by the Treasury on the grounds that it was of poor value and exposed the suppliers to excessive financial risk. The bid by BR was also hampered by a lack of available manufacturers, as Metro-Cammell and BREL were by that time heavily committed to production of the Class 365/465/466 Networker units.
Although InterCity 250 was cancelled, the improvements to the WCML were still required and were campaigned for by the West Coast Rail 250 pressure group. Following the privatisation of British Rail in 1994, the newly formed rail infrastructure company Railtrack drew up plans for track and signalling upgrades to allow for high-speed running, which it budgeted at £2 billion. The predicted journey times for a 250 km/h option 'e' tilting train were based upon the calculated InterCity 250 performance over the West Coast Main Line supplied by British Rail.[9] The first phase of the upgrade, between London Euston and Manchester was completed in 2004; however, work at several sites including Rugby and Milton Keynes stations, the Trent Valley and the remainder of the route to Glasgow continued until December 2008. The major inter-city passenger operator on the WCML, Virgin Trains, placed a rolling stock order worth £1 billion for 53 nine car sets of the new Class 390 Pendolino electric multiple unit. These are seen as the successor to the original APT concept, in that they utilise tilting technology to successfully negotiate the route of the WCML at high speed. Though infrastructure limitations presently limit them to 125 mph, the trains are capable of speeds up to 140 mph.