Times are changing

Having seen and heard so much about the new rolling stock, station improvements, and overall changes to the railway network which are happening over the next few years, I was wondering; in a few years' time, will the UK railway system be at all like the one we have today?

The Class 800/801/802s were originally brought into service on GWR services in 2017, and by 2019 all lines which were going to be served by IETs were being served by them. The Class 43 HSTs were eventually taken out of service after almost 43 full years of work on the GWML.
But the ECML has waited 2 years for the "Azuma" trains to arrive; the Office of Rail & Road insisted that safety issues on these trains had to be sorted before they could be introduced. However, the trains they were stopping from running on the ECML were already running on the GWML and had been for the best part of 2 years.

A major issue that hindered the introduction of the ECML's new Azumas was the fact that the wires connecting the train carriages could be used as a ladder for people to climb up and get close enough to the OHLE to receive a deadly shock. On the GWML, this problem was not brought up; IETs run every day on the GWR network with this potentially deadly system of wires between the carriages and nothing has happened.
However, the GWML IETs run with differing numbers of wires in between the carriages. Two wires seems to be the normal amount between unit carriages, but sometimes enough wires can be there to mean that someone could climb up to the OHLE. This issue was raised by the ORR when the ECML Azumas were almost in service and it delayed them by a sizeable amount of time.

The original plan was for the Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) Azumas (as they were in the early days) to be released into service in December 2018 - but this was delayed until July 2019. Some reports from late 2018 stated that they were going to be delayed until 2020.
Now both mainlines are seeing Class 800/801/802 trains in revenue-earning service. These trains, on the GWML, have replaced Class 43 HST sets - on the ECML, they are replacing both the Class 43 HSTs and the Class 91s.

The introduction of these new trains in 2017/2019 was the first major example of the same classes of train being released in such a wide number and on such varied routes for many years. The introduction of Northern's new Class 195 and Class 331 trains have also marked the beginning of the end for more trains - this time the Class 142 "Pacers", which have been in service in the north since the 1980s.

TransPennine Express are also receiving new trains - in this case, they are in the form of Class 397s, Class 802s, and Class 68s. The Class 397s are both brand-new designs in the UK. The Class 802s have already been in service on the GWML as IETs for a couple of years now. The Class 68s, which will haul Mk5 coaching stock, have already seen a few years' worth of service on the Chiltern Mainline and on various freight journeys throughout the country.

I have almost certainly missed out some new trains arriving in the UK.

With the introduction of all these new trains over here, one can't help but wonder: Will the UK railway in, say, 2029 be at all recognisable in comparison to what we have today? Stations across the country are seeing improvements ranging from step-free access in the form of lifts to entire station building rebuilds. Will we be looking back at the railways of today and saying how much we miss being on the HSTs, the Class 91s, or the TPE units?

I think that in a few years' time we will be looking back at the old trains, and we will be sentimental about them, but it will pan out like the end of steam; new trains are replacing the old trains we knew and loved, and people will of course be annoyed and upset. But with these new trains come better services and more reliable services. We may not have the old loco-hauled trains, but we will have multiple unit trains which will provide quicker and better journeys.

I will be sentimental and sad about the loss of more "classic" trains on our rail network, but I am interested to see what the future holds for the railways. When the final Class 91 is taken out of service on the ECML, or the last Class 43, we will be sad about it, but we will have photos of them and we will have videos of them and we will be able to look back at the memories we have and think how different the railways were. We will also be able to look forward, to the future, and have a much better railway overall.


Thanks very much for reading this blog post.

-Peter