Intercity Express Programme - comments please

Any thoughts on specification of IEP? Want to share your views with others. Will 'just' 2000KW (@ 2680hp) diesel power match a current HST timings on the non-electrified routes?

Is there a better alternative - maybe electrifiying the branch-offs to eliminate diesel use, or buying a new fleet of dedicated electric trains for the electrified routes, and a fleet of diesel trains for then non electrified branches?
How about Virgin style diesel drags at the Northern end of the ECML for Aberdeen and nverness services?

Electrification of peripheral routes will need political willpower, absent except in Scotland, and lots of money, currently absent even in Scotland. Something like the Highalnd main line will get loops and double track before electrification. Yes, inplanned economy we would integrate these events by full route modernisation but let's be realisitc.

I feel that loco haulage on the lines of 1968 Bournemout to Weymouth is the answer but if so the loco diagrams must be productive. One round trip each way Inverness-Edinburgh with 5hrs spare in Edinburgh won't do. Integration with sleeper diagrams does not quite work but is an avenue to explore.

No one has ever been able to explain to me how electrification would work on Dawlish sea wall without electrocuting a sizeable portion of South Devon's population at high tide with a gusting easterly but presumably Ardrossan and Helensburgh residents have lived to tell the tale. If it is not possible we will need a pretty big diesel to haul an IEP over Dainton even at the current pedestrian 55mph.

John Heaton


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