Great Western Coffee Shop

Story appears in the Sun today how standing passengers on the 10 48 Liverpool to Euston yesterday were told to sit on the floor for Health and Safety reasons due to the failure of the tilting system. The train was rammed with approx 600 passengers including many standing in the vestibules due to the cancellation of the previous train.    Obviously a "jobsworth" at work because Virgin denied there was a Health and Safety risk.

The tilt system is automatically disabled when the train is overloaded above a certain level I believe.

Perhaps the train crew thought the overload sensors only detect excess standees, so sitting on the floor would bring the tilt on again!  ;D

Reported in the Evening Standard too: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24003350-passengers-on-speeding-train-are-told-to-sit-on-the-floor-for-safety.do

I do wonder why 125mph warrants the term "speeding" and "sped" when it comes to newspapers, given that the train was not speeding.

Also, "Pendolinos, the fastest trains in the UK" worries me as a Class 390 can do 140mph but an InterCity 125 did 148mph back in 1987.

A 390 could no doubt do more with mods,,, look at the work being done on the 350's

Are the javs on hs1 not the fastest?

You're correct Relex109 ;)

Class 395's (Javelins) do 140mph IIRC which they're allowed to do on HS1 - so technically these are the fastest UK Domestic Trains.

However the main mods required are to the infrastructure, not the train.  HMRI do not allow speeds greater than 125 mph without in cab signalling,  which would have to be fitted to the route first.

Paul

My understanding it was a weight limit that disables the tilt

Guessing a higher centre of gravity with passengers standing would put more force on the tilt systems sending them into fail safe mode, a lower centre of gravity means tilt would probably function. Sounds more sit down to minimise delays than for health and safety.