Camden New Journal - St Pancras International Magazine: Olympic runner

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

Camden New Journal - ST PANCRAS INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE
Published: November 2007

Olympic runner

FOR so long the sick man of Europe when it comes to public transport, life for London’s long-suffering train passengers is about to get much better – with the launch of the high speed Olympic Javelin service.
The clever people at Hitachi in Japan have designed 28 ‘A trains’ – to the tune of £28 million – which will hurtle passengers between St Pancras and Stratford at the break-neck speed of 140mph.
Journey times will be slashed from half-an-hour to just seven minutes when the service, run by Southeastern, gets under-way in time for the Olympics in 2012.
The six-carriage trains will revolutionise travel in the capital, running every six minutes and carrying up to 25,000 passengers an hour from the heart of the West End to east London and then on to Kent. Alistair Dormer, general manager at Hitachi Rail Systems London, says: “These new Hitachi trains are based on the Japanese bullet trains and will be the fastest domestic trains in the UK. They are set to transform the travelling experience from St Pancras and will make it possible for people to commute to London from Ashford in Kent in less than 40 minutes. Seven minutes between east and west London was unheard of until now so this is real progress.”
Sounds too good to be true? It’s not a cruel joke – the first of the futuristic looking trains have already arrived on our shores – so for some at least, London’s creaking rail network will soon be a nostalgic memory.
JAMIE WELHAM

> Click here to buy your copy.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment: