New trains worth £4.5 million which run from London to South Wales will be slower than they were 40 years ago, a transport union has claimed.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union shows that 1970’s services were faster than those advertised by Great Western Railways for Intercity trains. The proposed London to Cardiff journey time is 113 minutes, in comparison to 105 minutes in 1977. However, First Great Western said that the union was not comparing ‘like with like’. They said that the electric tracks would increase speeds to match 1970 times, plus there will be more frequent services which stop at more stations.
Speeds promised by 2018:
London – Bristol Temple Meads: 90 minutes
London – Cardiff: 113 minutes
London – Swansea: 164 minutes
1977 advertised speeds: 
London – Bristol Temple Meads: 85 minutes
London – Cardiff: 105 minutes
London – Swansea: 163 minutes
A spokesperson for RMT said that the results of the report demonstrated a failure in rail privatisation.
“Privatised rail services are not only more overcrowded and expensive they are also slower. And of course as well as being publicly owned, British Rail trains were publicly manufactured for far less cost in the UK, as opposed to the new IEP trains which are manufactured in Japan.”
First Great Western responded by saying:
“The fastest Bristol-London journey time, quoted by the RMT, in 1977 was one hour 25 minutes. Following electrification and the new trains, this will be one hour 19 minutes, that’s six minutes faster than in 1977. In 1977, six trains ran every two hours between Cardiff-London and Bristol-London, compared to 12 trains every two hours following electrification and the introduction of new trains. That’s double the number of services. The fastest Cardiff-London journey time, quoted by the RMT, in 1977 was one hour 45 minutes. This will be the same with the introduction of electrification and new trains.”
