UK STUCK ON THE SLOW LINE

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

BRITAIN has renamed its Channel tunnel rail link as High Speed 1, but the country's fastest railway line still trails behind those of much of Europe.

Eurostar trains run at up to 186mph on the first of two sections of the route between London and the tunnel, with one hitting 208mph in 2003 to set a new UK record.

The link is due to be completed in November, when services are switched from Waterloo to St Pancras, with 140mph commuter trains using the line from north Kent from 2009.

The record was previously held by British Rail's ill-fated tilting Advanced Passenger Train (APT), which reached 162mph - 18 years ago.

The train was scrapped by the Conservatives, who, like previous governments, had starved the railways of investment, compared with our European neighbours.

Ironically, the APT's technology was perfected abroad and was effectively reimported to Britain by the Italians to provide Virgin's Pendolino tilting trains for the Glasgow-London west coast main line.

Despite being capable of some 160mph and originally planned to run at 140mph, the trains are limited by track and signalling technology to 125mph - no faster than trains on the Edinburgh-London east coast main line which have been in service since the 1970s. First ScotRail's fastest trains do not go above 100mph.

Ministers remain undecided about a new Scotland-London high-speed line after the Eddington report gave it a low priority. One option is Maglev, whose vehicles could hover over guideways at 311mph. It would be another irony because the technology was also invented in Britain, but used only briefly in the 1980s.