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In 1969, Britain set out to build a train unlike any other.
A high speed train that wouldn’t need to run on a high speed railway.
When everyone else was pouring billions into constructing new smooth and straight high-speed
rail lines, the British would instead design a train that could reach incredible speeds
on any kind of track.
Even twisting and winding railways built a hundred years earlier.
Because this train would lean into corners, like a motorcycle.
And it promised to bring Britain’s antiquated railways into the 20st century.
It’s smooth, quiet, and an altogether delightful experience.
Everything that the developers and designers told me that the train should do, it does
appear to do, and does it exceptionally well.
This was going to be the Advanced Passenger Train, and in an era of automobiles and jet
travel, it was going to save Britain's railways.
In the 1960’s, Britain's railways were in trouble.
After declining for decades, there were fewer people riding trains in 1965
than there were back in 1890.
And rail lines around the country were shutting down.
The problem was, Britain’s railways were slow and antiquated.
Steam locomotives were still in use well into the1960’s.
And that stood in contrast against the exciting freedom of automobiles and the speed and glamor
of jet powered air travel.
If British Rail was going to compete in this new era, they’d need much faster trains.
Because elsewhere in the world, high speed rail was proving that it could win back passengers.
Japan’s new Bullet Trains were an instant success, carrying over 100 million passengers
in just the first three years of service.
But high speed trains need special tracks.
Long, straight sections of rail and gentle curves.
And to get their bullet trains to work, the Japanese built an entirely new high-speed
rail line, constructing thousands of bridges and tunneling right through mountains.
For their TGV, the French would end up doing much the same, building hundreds of kilometers
of high speed track.
But in Britain, there wasn't going to be any new railway.
For one, the country already had a vast rail network.
And with ridership declining, much of it was underutilized.
So the British set out to engineer a new kind of high speed train, one that would run on
Britain’s existing railways.
But it wasn't going to be easy.
Britain's 100 year old rail network was full of twists and turns, and a train can only
round a bend so fast before the ride becomes uncomfortable.
Because lateral forces can send items flying off tables, or even knock passengers off their feet.
The Japanese and French built their new high speed railways with gentle, banked curves
to minimize these lateral forces.
But the British, would come up with a brilliant alternative.
Instead of building tilted tracks, they’d engineer a tilting train.
By leaning the rail cars into curves, like a motorcycle, lateral forces on passengers
could be minimized, or even eliminated altogether.
And British Rail would pioneer the world's first active tilting system.
Unlike earlier tilting suspensions, it would use computers and sensors to read forces,
and hydraulic rams to actively tilt each rail car.
It took British Rail nearly two decades to develop the technologies, but by 1979, they
had built train unlike any in British history.
It would be called the Advanced Passenger Train.
Driven by eight traction motors housed in central power cars, the APT produced a total
of 8000 horsepower, making it the most powerful domestic train to ever operate in Britain.
With its advanced braking system, the APT could quickly decelerate from high speeds
allowing it to work with Britain's outdated signaling system.
And with active tilting, it could round a bend nearly twice as fast as any British train.
And during testing in 1979, the APT hit 261 km/h, setting a new British speed record.
One that would hold for another 23 years.
Britain's new train, was going to revolutionize its railways, and there were plans to build
a fleet of over 50.
But when the APT entered service as a prototype on December 7th 1981, almost overnight it
went from being heralded as the train of the future, to the subject of intense media ridicule.
The train was plagued by technical problems.
Everything from frozen breaks to failed tilting mechanisms.
And on the third day of service, one even broke down on the way from Glasgow to London.
But most embarrassing, the tilt caused nearly a third of passengers to become motion sick.
So bad were the problems, that after just a couple weeks, British Rail was forced to
pull the APT from service.
It would take another three years of development and testing just sort out all of the issues.
In the meantime, British Rail tried to fight back against the negative press.
Like in this promotional video featuring rattling dishes and a cup of coffee on the verge spilling.
The conventional service from Glasgow to Houston is good.
There’s not a patch on this.
It’s smooth, quiet, and an altogether delightful experience.
Everything that the developers and designers told me that the train should do, it does
appear to do, and does it exceptionally well.
But the press had already written the APT’s obituary.
The train had been put into service before it was ready.
Over 15 years and 50 million pounds had gone into development.
But designing a 250 km/h train to run on an antiquated rail network
proved too ambitious for British Rail.
The APT was supposed to enter service as early as 1976, but with so many novel features needing
development all at once, the program was difficult to manage.
And it was plagued by technical hurdles, delays, and in some cases, complete redesigns.
And the APT wasn’t adequately tested, moving from the experimental stage to a fully functional
prototype after having run just 37 thousand kilometers.
Meanwhile, in testing their TGV, the French racked up nearly a half a million kilometers.
And even as the experimental APT was beginning to prove itself, many within British Rail
were hostile towards the program, preferring conventional rail technologies over such a
revolutionary leap.
So British Rail split its resources and began developing a more conventional, and not quite
as fast diesel train without active tilting.
Throw in labor disputes, quality control issues, and wavering political support, and the entire
program might’ve been doomed from the start.
By 1980, Britain was in an economic recession.
And with the APT program at risk of being cancelled altogether, the prototype trains
were rushed into service.
When it was reintroduced again three years later in 1984, the active tilt had been modified
to reduce motion sickness and the trains proved reliable in service.
But none of that mattered.
Because the APT could never operate to its full potential, having to share tracks with
slower trains and overhead electrical lines….that weren't designed for higher speeds.
The APT was held back by the very same outdated rail network that it was supposed to overcome.
With little will to develop it any further, the APT was quietly removed from service in 1986.
But there’s a final twist of irony in the APT’s story.
Because in 1982, British Rail sold patents for its tilting technology to Italy’s Fiat,
who were developing an active tilting train of their own.
In 2002, Italian designed tilting trains were reintroduced to Britain’s railways.
Today, they operate along the London to Glasgow route, which is the exact same route the APT
was once supposed to serve.
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