NEWLY appointed transport secretary Lord Adonis today travelled in the cab of the first train with ‘Bullet train technology’ to carry domestic service passengers at 140 mph on Britain’s high speed line - just over a week before the launch of ‘preview’ services on the route.

The Class 395 Hitachi-built train was returning on HS1 from Ashford in Kent after completing the non- stop run from London St Pancras International in just under 30 minutes – compared with the usual time of around 80 minutes for the journey on conventional lines.

The transport secretary joined Southeastern driver instructor Mick Harding who was at the controls and operational standards manager Mark Medley in the cab for the high speed run back from Ashford to London, sampling for himself the benefits of the cut in journey time.

Before joining the train crew the pro-rail Lord Adonis hinted strongly that the success of domestic services on HS1 – which they will share with Paris and Brussels bound Eurostars – would have a distinct bearing on the outcome of plans for a second high speed line for Britain.

He told Railnews: “These trains will transform the quality of services on the routes from the Medway and East Kent when the full service starts in November this year.

“We currently have a company looking at the options for a second high speed line and the success of these services will have a bearing on decision which will be made when those reports are made.”

Questioned about the cost of fares on the new domestic services - which will be between 20 per cent to 35 per cent more than the cost of travelling by conventional routes – Lord Adonis added: “It cost nearly £6 billion to build HS1 and I think people who travel on this line will think it is reasonable to pay more for that.”

The first passenger runs for media representatives and other interested parties were the culmination of  two years of preparation by Southeastern, the Govia company which will be running the preview trains from 29 June.

It means that from Monday 29 June passengers from Kent will be able to start sampling the new services well in advance of the launch of full services on HS1 in December this year when Southeastern will be introducing a total of 200 new services throughout its whole network in a major revamp of the timetable.

For the time being the preview services will offer three peak time trains a day into London from Ashford and three from London St Pancras International to Ashford while there will also be 12 trains a day running to and from London and the new station of Ebbsfleet in Kent in a 17 minute journey. The station has a car park for us to 9,000 vehicles.

All the preview services will be on the high speed line but from December Class 395 High Speed services will also run on conventional lines under conventional signalling control – from places such as Dover via Ashford and Ramsgate, via Faversham.

Charles Horton, managing director of Southeastern, said: “There is a huge amount of interest from the passengers in these new services and the majority of people are just saying to us, ‘when can we get onto these faster services.’

“We will be continuing to train our drivers and on board staff for the new services and the preview time will provide us with the opportunity to see how the services is bedding down.”

So far around 40 drivers have been trained for the new Class 395 services out of the team of 120 who have been chosen from within Southeastern.

Each six-car train costing around £6 million will also have a train manager on board for customer services, commercial duties and for the safety of the passengers. They will be trained in evacuating passengers should the need ever arise.

All 29 trains have now been built in Japan with trains in the fleet already in the UK based at the new purpose-built Ashford depot near to HS1.
Alistair Dormer, managing director of Hitachi Europe Rail Group, said that for the first time in the UK passengers on the high speed run were experiencing “bullet train” technology six months ahead of schedule.

Earlier, during speeches at St Pancras International, Charles Horton praised all the staff at Southeastern who had been involved with the introduction of the new trains and he singled out programme director David Miller for his “tenacity, energy and commitment to make this day possible.”

He also thanked Network Rail, Paul Chapman, managing director of High Speed 1 Ltd, and train builders Hitachi.
Keith Ludeman, chief executive Go-Ahead Group whose rail division Govia runs Southeastern trains, said the new domestic services were all about getting people who travelled long distances to work to be able to use a quicker way.

The new services overall would create 10,000 extra seats a day in December when the full services are launched. “We have had long discussions with Eurostar to create the paths we need for our trains and that has been critical. There is not much spare capacity on HS1,” he said.

The last word went to driver instructor Mick Harding, a former British Rail guard who is now one of the elite cadre of drivers on HS1: “These trains are superb, the drivers love them. Those who have been training on them just say ‘when can we get back on board.’”

•    If you do not have a current rail ticket but would like to sample the new Class 395 preview services you can travel between Ashford and St Pancras International for £48.70 return or £113.40 weekly.

•    Passengers with an existing ticket can pay a supplement of £18.90 for a weekly season ticket or £8.10 anytime daily return.