Britain's 'Hovertrain': How UK was on cusp of world's first floating train with 300mph top speed 50 years ago... before £62m plans and test tracks were abandoned
The plan, which was dreamed up in 1967 during Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson's time in office, would have seen a train levitate above a bed of magnets to zip across the country at speeds unheard of anywhere else in the world.
Officials got as far setting up a company - Tracked Hovercraft Ltd - and building a test track along the Old Bedford River, between Earith and Sutton Gault in Cambridgeshire, on which the experimental train reached speeds of 107mph before the project was scrapped in 1973.
By then, £5million - around £62million in today's money - had been spent on the experiment and it was decided that the cost of making it commercially viable was 'well beyond' the resources of the Government body set up to fund it.
If it had come to fruition, the new technology would have allowed passengers to get from London to Birmingham in 20 minutes, or from the capital to Edinburgh in about two hours.
By comparison, trains on the in-progress HS2 line will reach maximum speeds of 225mph, meaning it will take commuters more than twice as long as to get to Birmingham.
And even though the hovertrain project was not ultimately a success, the pioneering technology was later used on the world's first MagLev transit system at Birmingham International Airport, which was opened by the Queen in 1984.
MagLev trains also now run in countries including Japan and South Korea and, in January the Chinese government unveiled the prototype of a 385mph bullet train which uses similar technology. Pictured: The RTV 31 was a test platform for a levitating train floating on a cushion of air at speeds of up to 300mph
The train was developed by the Tracked Hovercraft Ltd in the late 1960s and tested in Earith, Cambridgeshire in the early 70s
The British project used theories developed by hovercraft creators Sir Christopher Cockerell and Sir Eric Laithwaite.
The idea would see the train, named the RTV-31 use two sets of magnets: one set would repel and push the train off the track and the other set would move the elevated train forwards and take advantage of a lack of friction.
The expert name for the system was linear induction motor propulsion
Traditional trains, which run on steel wheels and steel tracks - as opposed to the cushion of air supporting the experimental trains - have limitations as to their top speed. Also, the type of engine can also limit its efficiency.
In the United States and the Soviet Union, designers tried installing large jet engines from military bombers to the top of a train to power them down the rails. These experiments were unsuccessful.
At the same time French engineers were working on an 'Aerotrain' which would also levitate - creating added pressure for the British engineers to succeed.
Despite the investment - the equivalent of £800million today - the project suffered several major early setbacks.
Early engineering reports had showed the ground would be able to support the proposed 20-mile track.
In June 1969, construction work began on the track and within one year a mile had been completed.
However, a couple of collapses questioned whether the former riverbed would actually hold up.
The test train was delivered in August 1971 and was run on the track for the first time in December - to a maximum speed of 12mph.
Engineers used the test results to fit more powerful motors on the train and it then achieved a speed of 72mph in August 1972.
The experts behind the project told the government they would need at least 12 miles of track to test the train at 300mph.
In January 1973, engineers were able to get the train - on what turned out to be its last ever run - to reach speeds of 107mph.
British engineers were racing against rivals in France who were trying to develop their own Aerotrain. The RTV-31 was part of a £5million project - worth more than £800 million in today's money - to assess the viability of levitating trains. Pictured: The RTV 31 on the test track in Cambridgeshire
In January 1973, engineers were able to get the train - on what turned out to be its last ever run - to reach speeds of 107mph
On February 14, 1973, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Michael Heseltine, a member of the now Conservative Government, announced the decision to scrap the project.
In a statement to the House of Commons, Heseltine said the Government-funded National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) decided, in 1967, to explore the 'possibilities of air cushion suspension and linear induction motor propulsion for high-speed ground transport systems.
'For this purpose it set up a wholly owned subsidiary company, Tracked Hovercraft Limited. To date some £5 million has been spent on the project,' he said.He went on to outline the success of it reaching 107mph but said the work was being discontinued because of its cost.
'From the experience gained it became apparent to NRDC by 1971 that the scale of funding required to make the project commercially viable would be well beyond NRDC's resources,' he said.
'Attempts to secure significant financial participation by private industry proved unsuccessful and by 1972 the Government had to decide whether to fund direct any continuation or development of the programme.
Despite the expenditure, the project was killed off by Transport Secretary Michael Heseltine. He thought it was more prudent to continue with British Rail's own Advanced Passenger Train project, which envisaged the introduction of high speed tilting trains using existing rail lines rather than completely new infrastructure for the RTV 31
'As customer requirements could not be clearly identified at the present time in this or in other countries which would justify the scale of expenditure required for further development of a complete system, NRDC, after fullest consultation with the Government, has had no alternative but to reach the decision to discontinue work on the project in its present form.
However, he added that the Government did 'see a need for exploratory work' on the magnet technology and said it had been agreed that British Rail - which then ran the country's nationalised railway network - would carry it out.
He said a comparison between various experimental systems should be continued to allow work to be 'taken forward' on a bigger scale if the need for it arose.
After the hovertrain project was abandoned, the RTV-31 was moved to Cranfield University in Bedfordshire before being moved to the Railworld Centre (pictured above), in Peterborough, in 1996
Within weeks of the hovertrain project being abandoned, work began on demolishing the test track.
One concrete section and the RTV-31 was moved to Cranfield University in Bedfordshire before it was taken to the Railworld Centre, Peterborough in 1996.
The train and the rail welcomes visitors on their way into the museum.
At the time of its scrapping, British Rail were working on their own Advanced Passenger Train system which would allow faster services on existing rail lines by allowing locomotives to tilt around corners - meaning they could travel at higher speeds.
The APT was intended for use on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) because the route contained many curves.
The Daily Mail's coverage of the decision to scrap the hovertrain project told how it was ruled out because of its cost
But after significant delays and negative press coverage, the prototype trains were put into service between London and Glasgow in December 1981 but were withdrawn from service just weeks later after repeated problems.
Later, in 1984, the trains were put back into service but was then competing with the conventional High Speed Train which, although it lacked a tilting ability, was starting to form the backbone of British Rail's offering.
It meant that the APT was abandoned, although its design went on to inspire train operators all over the world.
The MagLev line which was opened in 1984 ran between Birmingham Airport and the Birmingham International railway station.
However, the train only ever reached speeds of 26mph and, although it was popular with travelers because of the revolutionary technology it was using, it closed down in 1995 after continuous electrical system failures.
Even though the hover train project was not ultimately a success, the pioneering technology was later used on the world's first MagLev transit system at Birmingham International Airport, which was opened by the Queen in 1984
Despite the poor record of the technology in the UK, the MagLev has been employed all across the world - most prominently in Japan, Germany and China.
In January, China unveiled the prototype of a super-fast bullet train that engineers said could eventually reach a top speed of 385mph.
Dubbed the 'super bullet maglev train', the model rolled off the production line and made its debut at a ceremony in the south-western city of Chengdu.
It can travel at more than twice the speed of the Eurostar fleet, meaning it could cover the distance between London and Paris in 47 minutes if travelling at top speed.
The Chinese system uses high-temperature superconducting (HTS) maglev technology, different from the low-temperature technology employed by Germany and Japan in their maglev trains, according to experts from Southwest Jiaotong University.
In January, China unveiled the prototype of a super-fast bullet train that engineers said could eventually reach a top speed of 385mph The team claimed that the Chinese version is more lightweight with a simpler structure. It is also cheaper to manufacture and operate.
The engineers consider the HTS technology more suitable for the futuristic 'vacuum transportation', which could see ultra-high-speed maglev trains zipping in vacuum tubes in speeds over 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) per hour.
China's existing maglev system is employed on an 18.6-mile (30-kilometre) stretch of track which was opened in 2002 in Shanghai.
It connects Shanghai Pudong Airport and the city centre and reportedly cost more than £1billion to build.
The Shanghai maglev was jointly developed by Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development and a German consortium consisting of Siemens AG, Thyssen Transrapid GMBH and Transrapid International GMBH.
It is the world's fastest commercial train system, with carriages running up to 431 kilometres (267 miles) per hour.
Japan built the fastest-ever train in the world to date, but has yet to put it into commercial use.
The maglev train, operated by Japan Railways Group, set the world record after reaching 603 kilometres (374 miles) per hour on an experimental track in 2016.
No comments: