It’s very dependent on which region, which route and which train company you’re travelling with.
From a Yorkshire perspective, if your train runs North-South through bigger cities i.e. Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, Leeds, The South etc, without stopping at small in-between stations, you get 100 people on a 10 carriage long futuristic aerodynamic LNER Azuma Class 800 train, that feels like a luxury private jet and travels at 125mph.
If your train travels East-West and stops at places like Halifax, Bradford, Wakefield, Selby, Hull, but also stops at little in-between stations called stuff like Boggy Fence, Coaltown, Upper Frogbottom, Chough, Milton-upon-Jeremy and Thribblewick, you get 400 people squashed onto a 2 carriage Northern Rail Sprinter, that feels like a livestock wagon and travels at 30mph. It’s perfectly pleasant outside of commuter times, to be fair.
When the train is stopping at stations 5 miles apart, there’s not a lot of room for big fancy trains to do big fancy train things like “accelerate smoothly and aerodynamically” and “brake gently and quietly like a falling leaf”.
I’m kinda surprised there hasn’t been a retrofit of some kind to at least make an attempt at aerodynamics for it. I guess it would be minimal efficiency savings.
☝️🤓 Um, actually, the 4-decade-old “Pacer” (pictured) was retired a few years ago.
It was replaced by the exciting new “Sprinter”, merely 40 years old.
So the 40 year old was replaced with a 40 year old
I’ve always loved Britain’s impotent vehicle aesthetic. It’s just so adorable, like watching bunnies.
I used to work at Paddington Station, I’m sure we had streamlined trains.
Also, don’t we have pendolinos anymore?
Gotta admit, the old school high air resistance trains look cute though.
It’s very dependent on which region, which route and which train company you’re travelling with.
From a Yorkshire perspective, if your train runs North-South through bigger cities i.e. Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, Leeds, The South etc, without stopping at small in-between stations, you get 100 people on a 10 carriage long futuristic aerodynamic LNER Azuma Class 800 train, that feels like a luxury private jet and travels at 125mph.
If your train travels East-West and stops at places like Halifax, Bradford, Wakefield, Selby, Hull, but also stops at little in-between stations called stuff like Boggy Fence, Coaltown, Upper Frogbottom, Chough, Milton-upon-Jeremy and Thribblewick, you get 400 people squashed onto a 2 carriage Northern Rail Sprinter, that feels like a livestock wagon and travels at 30mph. It’s perfectly pleasant outside of commuter times, to be fair.
When the train is stopping at stations 5 miles apart, there’s not a lot of room for big fancy trains to do big fancy train things like “accelerate smoothly and aerodynamically” and “brake gently and quietly like a falling leaf”.
The Class 800 may have seats made from cardboard, but they do at least look like they were designed this century.
I’m kinda surprised there hasn’t been a retrofit of some kind to at least make an attempt at aerodynamics for it. I guess it would be minimal efficiency savings.