The Friends of the Far North Line
Cairdean Na Loine Tuath
the campaign group for rail north of
Inverness - lobbying for improved services for the local user, tourist and freight
operator
News came on 3 September that the procurement process for an inter-city fleet to replace the HST Inter7City (I7C) units has begun.
No date for delivery has been given, but this is hardly surprising since this is never a quick process. It seems unlikely that any new trains will be delivered by 2030, so the current units will have to soldier on.
When the announcement about the refurbishment of a tranche of redundant InterCity 125 units for use on ScotRail's planned Inter7City network was made, we enthusiastically supported the plan. I remember writing that people are never put off buying a beautiful Victorian house just because it was built a long time ago, so we should be happy to welcome fully refurbished, extremely comfortable and fast trains, even though they were built over 40 years ago.
Sadly the reality has turned into something of a nightmare for ScotRail and the doubters were correct. Availability of units has never been high enough to guarantee running all the I7C services with them. Initially there would be random substitutions of Class 170/158 units - a public relations disaster. Then ScotRail decided to stop trying to provide the whole service with the units and made it known via the timetable which services would be covered by an I7C set. This was a better solution but still resulted in disappointment if no working unit was available for an advertised I7C service.
Our awareness of the problems is mostly with the Highland Main Line - a route already severely hampered by slowness, long station dwell times and late running because of the lack of passing places - the arrival of a substitute set of stock just compounded the bad feeling.
Work now begins at Transport Scotland and Scottish Rail Holdings to specify the new stock. As ScotRail says in its description of the I7C units, "Comfortably the best way to travel. More seats, more space, more comfort". These are indeed ScotRail's most comfortable trains by far, and the chosen manufacturer must ensure that the new trains are at least as good as these 40-50 year-old ones.
I remember with pleasure travelling between Glasgow and Edinburgh in the same kind of MkIII carriages as the I7C units - sadly the current experience on that line, whilst fast and reliable, is a very poor successor in comfort terms. The new trains must be at least as comfortable as the old ones.