Exclusive:The London-Glasgow rail record attempt postponed by signalling fault
Frustration at lack of reduction to journey time on key route
Rail campaigners have condemned the failure to speed up Glasgow-London rail journeys after Avanti West Coast was forced to postpone its attempt to break the record next week because of a signalling fault.
The train operator had hoped to better the three hours 52 minutes fastest time set 41 years ago after failing in a previous attempt in 2021 by just 21 seconds.
It has decided to postpone the bid until around September because of signalling problems just north of Euston Station in London that have forced trains to run at reduced speed.
The announcement was met with frustration by campaigners, who want journey times between Scotland and England’s biggest cities reduced to encourage more passengers to switch from air.
They pointed to the contrast with the 125mph east coast main line (ECML), where some of LNER’s Edinburgh-London services are due to be accelerated to just over four hours from December.
Avanti’s Pendolino trains take around four-and-a-half hours between Glasgow and London. They are capable of 140mph, but are limited to the west coast main line’s (WCML) speed limit, also 125mph.
The record was set in 1984 by British Rail’s Advanced Passenger Train, which travelled at up to 160mph despite the line’s then 110mph limit. Avanti’s record attempts are limited to 125mph.
HS2 was due to reduce London-Glasgow/Edinburgh journey times to three hours 37 minutes, with its trains continuing north on the WCML. But they will now take longer than that following the line from London being curtailed from Manchester to the West Midlands.
Malcolm Reed, a former chief executive of Transport Scotland who later advised Avanti predecessor Virgin Trains, said: “The record attempt cancellation is yet another example of how the WCML is failing to deliver the promises that were made to the west of Scotland at the time of the upgrade programme at the beginning of the century.
“Instead, we now have a service that is slower than it was 15 years ago and notoriously prone to cancellation. Contrast this with the ECML, which has been improved incrementally, but effectively over many decades.
“Glasgow is left with a slower version of the London service that was introduced almost two decades ago.”
Paul Tetlaw, rail policy adviser to sustainable transport campaigners Transform Scotland, said: “Journey times on the WCML require major improvements to allow rail to compete with air on this key route and to match those on the east coast route.
“The failure so far to improve the route serves to highlight the lack of any government strategic long-term planning for rail while other countries surge ahead.”
In a joint statement, Avanti and track and signalling body Network Rail said: “We are very disappointed we cannot go ahead next week as planned. Succeeding in setting a new record comes down to a matter of seconds, so we’re working hard with signalling specialists to find a safe fix.
“We want to give it our best attempt, so we’ll be working with colleagues from across the industry to find a new date and hope to take on the challenge later this year. “
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