Which UK trains tilt?

The British version of the Pendolino, the British Rail Class 390, is a 225 km/h (140 mph) electric tilting train operated by Avanti West Coast. It runs on the West Coast Main Line (London Euston to Glasgow Central, Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly).



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The purpose of tilt on the Pendolino was to maintain passenger comfort levels when traversing curves at high speed by reducing the sideways forces on the train's occupants, minimising their tendency to slide across the carriage.

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Pendolino (from Italian pendolo ['p?ndolo] pendulum, and -ino, a diminutive suffix) is an Italian family of high-speed tilting trains (and non-tilting) used in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK, the US, Switzerland, China, and Greece.

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The Lickey Incline, south of Birmingham, is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain. The climb is a gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65% or 26.5‰ or 1.52°) for a continuous distance of two miles (3.2 km).

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Following testing of gas-turbine powered prototypes, three electric trains were built in 1981. The APT's maiden Glasgow-to-London run happened on 7 December of that year. Journalists on board complained that the tilting mechanism caused motion sickness, nicknaming the APT queasy rider.

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By tilting the train combats the centripetal force which causes inertia e.g. when standing you losing balance as you come around a curve. So when the curve goes to the right, the train tilts right, making a more comfortable ride as well as allowing faster speeds.

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Avanti West Coast reduced its timetable in August 2022 - citing unofficial strike action from its employees. In that month, cancellations were as high as 25%.

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The Lickey Incline, south of Birmingham, is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain. The climb is a gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65% or 26.5‰ or 1.52°) for a continuous distance of two miles (3.2 km).

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For example, the Japanese N700 Series Shinkansen may tilt up to one degree on the Tokaido Shinkansen, allowing the trains to maintain 270 km/h (168 mph) even on 2,500 m (8,200 ft) radius curves that previously had a maximum speed of 255 km/h (158 mph).

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Azuma means “east” in Japanese. Our new trains use Japanese bullet train technology, built by Hitachi's UK manufacturing team in County Durham, using parts supplied from the North East.

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The maximum speed currently possible in the UK is 186mph, achieved by Eurostar trains on the HS1 line between London and the Channel Tunnel. The HS1 line is used by Eurostar services and Javelin commuter services from Kent, although the latter have a max speed of 140mph.

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