HST's heading for Mexico?

[whole diary]

[Surrey 455]

Railway Gazette and Railtech.com are reporting that several Intercity 125's are on their way to Mexico to be used on a new high speed railway.

From Railway Gazette

Three withdrawn ex-British Rail IC125 High Speed Train diesel power cars and 11 MkIII coaches were shipped from Great Yarmouth in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) onboard the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Arkhangelsk on August 9; the ship called at Castellón in Spain on August 16, and in late August was crossing the Atlantic towards Corpus Christi in Texas.

According to sources in Mexico, the vehicles have been acquired from UK leasing company Angel Trains by Ferrocarril del Istmo de Tehuantepec. The navy-owned company owns the trans-isthmus rail corridor linking the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico which is being rehabilitated under Tren Interoceánico programme. The operator has been seeking rolling stock for use on planned passenger services.

Angel Trains told Railway Gazette International that it would not comment on a commercial matter.

Those are the only two websites I can see covering this story, I can't see anything on the mainstream news sites.

[stuving]

The Corredor Interoceánico del Istmo de Tehuantepec does seem more likely than the Tren Maya as a destination. Both are pet projects of AMLO's, and scheduled to start running this year and be complete next year. Tren Maya was, I suspect, suggested earlier because more people had heard of it. But it has a fleet of new passenger trains being built by Alstom, of which the first have already been delivered. They are barely high speed, at 160 km/hr, but the project certainly is by British standards  - over 1,500 route km of new and rebuilt lines to be built in less than five years.

The Interoceánico is really an Atlantic-Pacific freight link, but passenger services were promised in what looks like a political gesture. But there's been no order of new trains, so something is needed to fulfil that promise. And this line is even less high speed - 100 km/hr, and less for freight.

[grahame]

BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Retired trains set for new life abroad

Shipments of retired UK^▸ (United Kingdom) trains are poised to set sail from Great Yarmouth for Africa and Central America where they will return to passenger service.

Train enthusiasts gathered to see the InterCity 125 cars and carriages taken through the town with a police escort and loaded at the Norfolk port.

Some of the trains had recently been in service with Cross Country and Great Western Railway - before their final journey by rail from Ely to Great Yarmouth.

James Steward, a director of Eastern Rail Services, said: “They’ve got a lot of life left in them."