BBC InterCity 125 report

Original BBC news report on the introducting of the InterCity 125 trains, including a British Rail advert at the end.

[@Ash-928]

40 years these fine machines have been in service. 40 YEARS! Just like the Class 91/InterCity 225 (over 25 years in service) they have aged extremely well. They still look modern, even when compared to Voyagers and Pendolinos, thanks to Kenneth Grange's redesign of the ugly (but still awesome!) prototype. The new lights on their noses and fancy liveries hide their vintage, the only giveaway of their age really are the "slam doors" of their coaches (which add to their charm). Sadly their singing voices are not as great since they had their Valentas replaced, but hey, at least they're still going strong! Considering they were only designed as a temporary stop gap for the APT just goes to show how GREAT British engineering was back in the day. Its sad that eventually they will be replaced, but hopefully the "InterCity-125/HST" will be remembered and cherished the way steam engines are.

[@Ash-928]

***** Yes, I think they were. I don't mind the Pendolinos and Voyagers, they're not bad looking machines, its just their interiors are too cramped and claustrophobic feeling. Even though the 125 was made 30 years prior to both of them, its still a superior train.

[@andywainwright209]

As the Mk3 stock looks like it's going to be scrapped, one wonders if it's been beaten for passenger comfort by anything since. The new trains have better facilities for the disabled as well as crash worthiness, but the overall experience especially in motorised coaches is rarely as good.

[@Ash-928]

***** I do not want to see "Mk3" and "scrapped" in the same sentence.

[@LiftFan]

I've mainly heard HSTs being the UK's greatest loved train since steam...

[@macflod]

Nearly 50 years now and in 2023 I still find these one of the most comfortable trains to go on.

[@Ayeayecapn88]

British Rail...we are getting there! haha.

[@railenthusiastabhishek1527]

Intercity 250: we couldn’t get there.

[@allmyothersubscriptions]

0:49 fresh filter coffee on a train, what a luxury!!!!

[@jacksdjfam]

And a radio telephone. What will they think of next!

[@davidnewman7331]

No buffet car nowdays train less comfort overcrowding not getting there now more going backwards look out for slam door trains at a station near you soon

[@KL53986]

Its actually dieselelectric Dual train Dual - i mean this has two vechicles at end for run the passerger vechicle

[@ericssmith2014]

The swimsuit model waving from the locomotive door at the end of the ad, there as a joke, is in fact only the second woman we see on screen despite all of the shots of passengers and staff in the news segment.

[@johnnyboy3949]

Train Jams do exist! Try getting a train through the Manchester Piccadilly-castlefield corridor at rush hour and you’ll be stuck in a train jam.

[@chrisrichmond403]

Another legend just Behind the Power Car in view around the 20 seconds mark . A wonderful Class 50 😀

[@chrishulse5305]

Mk3 coaches are still in regular use although a cloud is on the horizon in the form of PWRM regulations which will probably see them taken out of service by 2019.

[@agent_605]

Some may be used for postage services as has been thrown round a bit, even by the Government themselves. CrossCountry, GWR and ScotRail are replacing their trains with sliding doors, and Chiltern replaced theirs with plug doors about 5 years ago, so there's still hope. East Midlands Trains may also adopt this solution if new rolling stock isn't sourced quick enough

[@Nine-Signs]

@Dr Fulcher Greene Grayson I think east Anglia is still running MK3's, they have revamped them in modern materials and LED lights and such, I am no fan of privatisation but credit where it is due, they did a nice job. They are beautiful and so bloody roomy and comfy compared to modern carriages it is unreal.

[@phillipwilloughby5013]

Irish Rail had a fleet Mk3 coaches, but with electric doors instead of slam doors, which were in service from 1984 to 2009 and were all scrapped in 2014. It's a shame they weren't brought over here.

[@DonaldTrumpIsGreat]

Nice 👍

[@johnnyfartpants4801]

I Miss British Rail..

[@Nine-Signs]

"But flogging everything off to private capitalists and foreign government then allowing them to set prices based on a mythical market, that the bottom half of the country cant afford, makes everything better" - Thatchers Ghost and every conservative and centrist since her.

[@alexishamer6427]

Back in these days, there were slam doors 🚪 trains 🚆. It was called British Rail. Very complicated. 🙂

[@fatwalletboy2]

Uggh who suffer a coach over a fast train? I bet you save at least an hour london to bristol.

[@Nine-Signs]

Well, yes you can save exactly 1 hour (providing all goes well with the train journey) but due to privatisation the same journey on a train is 258% more than the cost of doing so by coach. 11 quid coach Vs 39.50 train.

[@KL53986]

Intercity Class 125 ,,Diesel Pendolino,,

[@RWL2012]

No that's the Virgin Super Voyager. A Pendolino by definition is a tilting train.

[@macflod]

Was that actually nudity in this advert!?

[@MarioStahl1983]

It's kind of absurd from today's point of view. They spent more than half a billion pounds on the HST which is a class 43 diesel nightmare. That same money would at the time have been enough to electrify two more mainlines and operate them with class 87 and later class 90 and 91. Dieselisation was the single biggest mistake in the post war history of railway politics and even in the 1970s they did not change anything. Shame on them! 😠 An elderly friend of mine, a life-long railway enthusiast, said it best: "Of course I love the Deltics but they should never have been built." Same is true for the HST. Thank God electrification of the Great Western Mainline has just been completed from London to Bristol. That makes 3 mainlines (almost) entirely electrified. I totally understand that they went with diesel locos in the first 10-15 years after the war when Britain was heavily dependent on foreign loans and the false promise of "cheap oil" kinda hypnotized everybody. But since the 1960s dieselization was already obsolete. Roughly 60 years later Britain finally liberates itself from this historic mistake. Honestly, I can't wait to see one damn' class 43 after another being brought where they belong: One trainset for the railway museum and the rest, yes, TO THE SCRAP YARD!!!