Great Western Coffee Shop

A First Great Western (FGW) train will leave Plymouth later attempting to break the record for the fastest journey time to London Paddington.

It is hoped the non-stop train will arrive into Paddington in 2 hours 52 minutes - shaving 20 minutes off the current time.

FGW said fast journey times between the South West and London were important. It has worked with local authorities and businesses to ensure services support Devon and Cornwall's economies.

The company said timetables have been developed to "best meet the needs of the region" within the constraints of available resources and the existing rail infrastructure.

As an example, FGW cited a new high-speed morning service from December which will leave London Paddington at 0706 to provide an earlier morning business arrival into Exeter, with connections to Plymouth.

In July the company announced it was adding more carriages on its "Night Riviera" service because of the increase in demand for the sleeper from Penzance to Paddington.

Tim Jones from the Devon and Cornwall Business Council said if the record attempt was successful it would "raise the bar".

"If the record is broken it will set a new standard of expectation from the business community. If it can be done once, it can be done again and should be achievable on a regular basis."

The FGW train will leave Plymouth at 1248 BST and should arrive in Paddington at 1540 BST.

It must be running non-stop from Plymouth, as there is no sign of it on the LDBs for Exeter, Taunton or Reading.

FGW train breaks Plymouth to London non-stop record

A train has broken the record for the fastest time from Plymouth to London Paddington, First Great Western (FGW) has claimed.

The non-stop train reached Paddington in 2 hours 43 minutes, 17 minutes faster than the previous record.

have greater acceleration if it had to slow down!!

It was only 5 coaches made up of 2 first class, 1 buffet, 1 first class and then the TGS.

So? Was this a record breaking run or not? Archive seems to suggest that BR were faster back in 1985.

So.. does anyone know if any Heathrow express trains were held up to let this train break it's record attempt?  :o ;)

2h17 was BRs 1985 record...

Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/blade5859#p/u/39/ZXNuGG9NhXo

The train wasn't supoosed to show that the time could be achieved
every day - in fact FGW is looking to extend some HSTs so some slight
performance "loss" will follow that. In "daily service" you also don't
get slow trains held in loops, signallers sitting with "minders" in
every box or a Heathrow Express moved to the slow lines. The run
carried local press from Plymouth and some business people from the
area and was partly to show how good the HSTs are - and can be for
many years, if looked after, if the recession requires this. It also
enabled FGW to work with Network Rail and build a few "bridges" where
things have been a bit poor recently and delays have got worse and
enabled the railways to get the BBC/ITV and newspapers to run a
positive railway story - how hard is it to get that these days.


I was on the train - there were staff on many stations waving the
station through and signallers at quite a few boxes were there waving
to the train as well - which is great for the relationship between the
signallers themselves and the TOC/Traincrew etc.


Unlike the TGV runs the power cars were not specially selected or
prepared - they were picked because they both carried names! - and the
5 car rake had been used for a naming a few days earlier and stayed as
formed.


Interestingly apart from slightly more sprightly acceleration from
starts (there was only one start) most of the run was at line speed (3
slows unexpectedly, all three being "investigated") and so the length
of the set probably didn't make a lot of difference to the timing
either. The "aim" was 2h 40 - it was actually 2h 43 and the three bits
of regulation cost just over 3 minutes... hence the investigation!!!


Just a chance to show what a middle-aged train is still capable of,
the ride in the Mk3s was excellent - I felt that the track was in
better state than last time I travelled on the route when I thought it
had deteriorated significantly and the senior journos from the local
Plymouth press who were sitting by me were very keen to go off and
write a positive story - its what the railways need!!

Err.... so what if one was? Airport Junction is a converging junction for up trains on a very busy line so HEX's and FGW trains get held up all the time.  Maybe trains were held up at Reading too.  I frequently get held up leaving Reading towards Didcot for Freightliner trains crossing at Reading West Junction, and they aren't even on a record-breaking attempt (unless it's for how many pass trains they can hold up!)

I wasn't aware of any hierarchy for regulation of trains at Airport Junction or that HEX's get priority over FGW trains. I'd assumed that Class1 trains would be treated as equal status and that regulation of them would be based on the normal principle of minimising overall delay.  Perhaps someone on the inside can enlighten us?

passengers carried were local business delegates i believe

I always thought that HEX paid a premium to NR to get priority running.
I also notice that HEX 'bell out' (TRTS) their trains 5 mins before departure and we are told to do it 2 mins before departure. Sometimes we also have to wait for a HEX to leave before we get the signal on one of our 'on-time' departures.

HEX trains will often be given the head over FGW trains because their units can out accelerate and break HST's and 165/6's

Shouldn't that be a reason for delaying their access to the mainline? Particularly at Airport Jn. 125mph HST hurtling along slowed to stand will lose more time than an EMU being brought to stand on a lower speed section of line!

wonder how fast a 180 could do it

Probably not much quicker than a HST in a 2+5 configuration.  Where it would gain is in the low speed acceleration, but as it was a non-stop run that wouldn't really have been an issue and the mid to high acceleration profile of a 180 would have been very similar to the HST.  On top of that, I'm sure at least one of the engines would have packed up en-route if it'd been a 180  ;)

i was going to say class 220 then realised that people would probably prefer to spend abit longer on a hst