The centrepiece at the Warley Model Railway Show was this brand new Virgin Railways Pendolino tilting train car. [ 20 October 2001: Message edited by: Alan ]</p>
If that is the engine, where is the smoke stack? Yeah, it does look like its already going 100 per! I thought they tried that in England and that one is now in private hands. Did they work out the bugs? I thought it would be fun to ride, sorta like an airplane banking into a curve!
It looks like it's smiling. Are you sure it's not the latest addition to the Island of Sodor Railway? Thomas'new friend "Tilty".
That is one GREAT model...You did say "Warley Model Railway Show", right? I just hope the rails under that thing are as sleek and solid.
More info about Virgin Tilting Trains Click the link - "Our plans for the future" [ 21 October 2001: Message edited by: Alan ]</p>
Alan, thanks for the very nice post and the link to Virgin. However, that raises a question - how rail transportation is structured in the UK .... ? Does the Government own and maintain the physical plant? Do private companies own and operate all trains? Are trains provided solely on a useage/profit basis, to be dropped when profit ceases? Who is responsible for scheduling and dispatching? What I am visualizing is something akin to air, highway, and marine transportation in the US, where the government is responsible for building, maintaining, and regulating the infrastructure for the benefit of any/all private enterprise. (The question may not be appropriate for this thread or forum, so please feel free to move it.) [ 21 October 2001: Message edited by: Hank Coolidge ]</p>
Hank, basically the infrastructure was owned and operated by Railtrack until last week, when it was declared bankrupt by the government, who are now looking for a non-profit company to take over. The various routes are franchised to various companies, who own and run the trains, and pay track-occupancy fees to railtrack. The franchises last for varying number of years, indeed with high levels of funding needed for new trains, some franchise lengths have been extended, to make the purchases worthwhile. There is quite strict regulation of the operators, so they cannot do just what they like, and are heavily fined for bad performance, like regular late-runnung of trains, etc. We do not have scheduling and dispatching like the US, as all trains are timetabled. Railtrack operates all the signal boxes (towers).
Alan, thank you for the information. The UK rail situation is more clear now. A question remains however - if a route or train becomes marginal economically, does the government step in with subsidies if it is deemed to be in the "public benefit" to maintain the service?
There are quite a few subsidies around, passenger trains in the UK are considered to be a needed public service
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Alan: operated by Railtrack until last week, when it was declared bankrupt by the government<hr></blockquote> <font color="336633">Mainly due to years of under funding and under maintained when it was under the governments control, and the fact that the government pulled all funding from Railtrack. I think there is a legal case going on at the moment and people talking about taking the government to court.</font>
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>The UK rail situation is more clear now.<hr></blockquote> It may seem that way Hank, but for me and most of the UK population it's as clear as the way the stock market works (and yes, that is a carefully loaded simile). The way the system was originally privatised, with track owned by one company, trains owned by a couple of others, and those trains operated by yet another 20 or so others was lunacy. I think the North American system would work far better - each operating company owns and maintains the tracks that it has majority use of, and other operators get (government regulated or supervised) trackage rights where needed. That way if the track is allowed to deteriorate the company that suffers is the owner/operator and not an 'innocent third party' as seems to have been the case in the last few years here. Still, I suppose it can only get better
I lived in England for two years (78-80) while in the USAF (RAF Alconbury, near Huntingdon). I enjoyed the rail service by "British Rail", and those great InterCity 125's to London! Kinda cool to hear about the privatization, especially the Virgin Rail lines. Mike
