02 March 2017
All Aboard
Trains carry a punch
by J.R.Thomas
This is indeed the age of the train. Britain has finally committed (the House of Commons approved it last week) to building High Speed Two, or HS2 as we shall doubtless come to know it; in fact we will probably come to know it only too well as the rows continue, the costs build up, and the delays accumulate. HS2 has been up and running (running is maybe the wrong word) with an administrative and design staff for over three years now. Indeed it has already managed to lose its first chief executive, Simon Kirby, lured away to head up Rolls-Royce; no Isambard Kingdom Brunel he.
But, cynicism aside, at some point in the mid ‘twenties Britain will have a new high speed line connecting London to Birmingham, and all others things being equal, most crucially the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s willingness , making its way to Manchester and Leeds. Those cities are the ones which stand to benefit the most from high speed rail. Birmingham already has three routes to London, but both Manchester and Leeds sit rather oddly at the end of poor quality lines, almost branch lines – whilst York and Bristol have excellent high quality railway links, reflecting the population spread when railway building was in its heyday.
Meanwhile in the USA, an even more remarkable event on the rails. The history of the USA is in many ways the history of its railroads, famous for reaching their iron tentacles out west, ever seeking the Pacific, and, in their passing, opening up the new country. Any western movie will explain. The railroads were the foundations of many a great fortune, and provided the mobility for trade and people to move and prosper. They stayed resolutely private and mostly profitable (Union Pacific Railroad is one of the biggest corporations in the US, and it is only one of several major operators) and the one experiment in state ownership, Conrail, formed in the 1970’s to save the bankrupt Penn Central, was such a disaster that it cured the Americans of any urge to let their government go into the railroad ownership business.
With one exception. Amtrak, not an owner but just a passenger train operator and also formed in the mid 1970’s, after all the railroads abandoned long distance (and most of their short distance) passenger services. Amtrak still operates long haul services between most major population centres, but the networks have shrunk as the Americans’ urge to go slowly across country has diminished. Conversely, commuter services into major cities have grown, all state sponsored in some shape or form, and especially popular in California, with over-crowded highways and always a strong inclination to greenness.
But now a new trend may be emerging; the Florida East Coast Railroad (“FEC”), a major freight mover on the eastern seaboard, is going back into the passenger business which it abandoned in the 1960’s. And it is taking this seriously; no repainting and reupholstering old coaches to hang behind some logo plastered elderly diesel loco’s here. FEC has ordered five new generation trains from Siemens, the latest seven coach 125mph diesel powered trains, which it is calling “Brightline” and painting yellow and white. It is introducing a high speed service from Miami to West Palm Beach this year, with extension next year to Orlando. The journey time will be about three hours, with sixteen trains a day, much faster than driving and comparable with flying – without the fuss. If this works, it will be extended to Jacksonville later, and maybe further up the east coast.
Where the USA goes Mr Putin’s Russia often follows; he has noted the railway revolution, or at least his generals have, and they too are introducing a new service. This is not for passengers, and indeed if the train runs it may the last of its type – or at least the last that many of us know about. The military are putting their new generation of intercontinental nuclear missiles onto trains, with specially built trucks (disguised as normal freight wagons) and especially powerful locomotives to pull them. These locomotives will be diesel powered, another threat to the quality of the air we breathe, though that may be the least of your concerns. The new kit is still on trial and if tests are successful (our Russian military correspondent does not indicate what success might mean in this context, but presumably if, say, Malta is obliterated in a missile strike from some unidentified source, that might be indicative) five trains will be introduced from 2020 onwards. Each train will carry six missiles and the associated launch gear, and will be designed to run anywhere in Russia. It may give some small assurance that they will be confined to Russia – the Russian track gauge is different to the rest of Europe so no chance of rolling them too far west. Well, except Finland – the poor Finns do have the Russian gauge, so will have to rely on their fierce winters freezing up the electronics of the launch platforms if they are not to be subject to retaliatory western strikes.
Like the Americans, the Russians have learned the importance of branding and the new trains and their explosive cargo will be known as “Barguzin”, which is the strong wind that blows from the east over Siberia and Lake Baikal. That should beat “Brightline” in the branding awards any time, let alone “HS2”. And it drops a hint as to the direction in which they expect to fire the missiles, if the time comes.
The use of trains to covertly move and launch nuclear missiles is not new, in fact. The Americans had them in the mid-1980’s but were not impressed by their reliability and safety (derailments in urban areas not being well received), ultimately deciding that they preferred their bombs hidden in silos. The Russians also had twelve trains, but the weight of the old generation of missiles was so great that each train could carry only three, and even then required three engines to pull it. Also axle loadings were so high that the trains could not be used on much of the Russian railway network. They were rapidly taken out of use when the damage being done to the track was identified, and just one survives – in the railway museum at St Petersburg. That missile is said to be disarmed, but who can be sure?
But now technology and modern materials have made the new generation of mobile weaponry possible and so within a few years the trains, indistinguishable from standard freight trains save that presumably they will never stop for shunting or unloading, will be roaming the rails from Moscow to Vladivostok, carrying mobile threats to the whole world.
Will the Americans now want to catch up in the railmissile race? Possibly not; quite apart from trying to negotiate terms with all those private railroads to run the missile trains on their lines, American freight trains are notorious for running late; not a good idea with a four minute warning window to get the train found, stopped, aimed, and letting off its cargo. But HS2, that might be more suitable. One minute Britain’s nuclear defence system is in London, an hour later in Birmingham, and an hour after that in Leeds. None of our enemies will ever be able to reprogramme their launch codes fast enough. Unless of course the unions failed to agree who should open the weaponry capsule doors…
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