Railway Performance Society Magazine - Milepost

Rail Performance Magazine

Mass Timing Days

At least once a year a group of society members will attempt to record the performance and punctuality of as many trains as possible on an agreed route.

The route chosen for 2009 is St Pancras to Leicester, where we will have the chance to compare the performance of HST's and Class 222 'Meridian trains on the fast and semi-fast services. The day will give us a chance to asess the reliability of East Midlands Trains new timetable which brings faster running and more trains to the route. The route features long stretches of 110mph running and the fastest trains are scheduled to cover the 99 miles non-stop in around 67minutes - averaging 90mph in the process. The Class 222 'Meridian trains are among the fastest accelerating trains in the country, and yet there is still huge affection for the classic HST (High Speed Train - also formerly known as Intercity 125) which can be found operating along the route. Look out for more news regarding this event in Milepost.

The selection criteria is that the route should be approximately 25 to 50 miles long, at least 90mph line speed (somewhere), mixed traction, accessible to large number of members and journey time of about a hour.

The date and route is decided many months in advance and advertised in the society magazine 'Milepost'. Normally a Saturday in summer is chosen to provide maximum daylight. The event is co-ordinated by an organiser who will attempt, as far as humanly possible, to allocate one society member per service train to ensure that a complete a picture of the day's rail services are recorded. The organiser produces a report of the day which appears in 'Milepost', or as a supplement, passing comment on each individual run - not always an easy task as there can be over 30 runs to comment on - in each direction!

A full history of the Mass Timing Day is detailed in the table below:


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