Editing Rail transport in Great Britain (section)

===Inter-city===
[[File:British main lines railway diagram.png|thumb|right|Overview map of the north–south main lines in Great Britain]]
[[File:St Pancras railway station MMB 31 395018.jpg|thumb|A [[Southeastern (train operating company)|Southeastern]] [[British Rail Class 395|Class 395 ''Javelin'']] at [[St Pancras railway station]]]]
{{Main|High-speed rail in the United Kingdom|Inter-city rail in the United Kingdom}}

High-speed inter-city rail (above {{convert|124|mph|km/h|abbr=on|disp=or}}) was first introduced in Great Britain in the 1970s by British Rail. BR had pursued two development projects in parallel, the development of a [[tilting train]] technology, the [[Advanced Passenger Train]] (APT), and development of a conventional high-speed diesel train, the [[InterCity 125|High Speed Train]] (HST). The APT project was abandoned, but the HST design entered service as the [[British Rail Classes 253, 254 and 255]] trains. The prototype HST, the [[British Rail Class 252|Class 252]], reached a world speed record for diesel trains of 143.2&nbsp;mph, while the main fleet entered service limited to a service speed of 125&nbsp;mph, and were introduced progressively on main lines across the country, with a rebranding of their services as the ''[[InterCity 125]]''. With electrification of the [[East Coast Main Line]], high-speed rail in Great Britain was augmented with the introduction of the [[British Rail Class 91|Class 91]], intended for passenger service at up to 140&nbsp;mph (225&nbsp;km/h), and thus branded as the ''[[InterCity 225]]''. The Class 91 units were designed for a maximum service speed of 140&nbsp;mph, and running at this speed was trialled with a 'flashing green' signal aspect under the [[UK railway signalling|British signalling system]]. The trains were eventually limited to the same speed as the HST, to 125&nbsp;mph, with higher speeds deemed to require [[cab signalling]], which as of 2010 was not in place on the normal British railway network (but was used on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link). A final attempt by the nationalised British Rail at High Speed Rail was the cancelled [[InterCity 250]] project in the 1990s for the West Coast Main Line.

Post privatisation, a plan to upgrade the [[West Coast Main Line]] to speeds of up to 140&nbsp;mph with infrastructure improvements were finally abandoned, although the tilting train [[British Rail Class 390|Class 390]] ''Pendolino'' fleet designed for this maximum speed of service were still built and entered service in 2002, and operates limited to 125&nbsp;mph. Other routes in the UK were upgraded with trains capable of top speeds of up to 125&nbsp;mph running with the introduction between 2000 and 2005 of [[British Rail Class 180|Class 180]] ''Adelante'' DMUs and the [[Bombardier Voyager]] DEMUs (Classes [[British Rail Class 220|220]], [[British Rail Class 221|221]] and [[British Rail Class 222|222]]).

====High Speed 1====
{{Main|HS1}}
The first implementation of high-speed rail up to 186&nbsp;mph in regular passenger service in Great Britain was the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (now known as [[High Speed 1]]), when its first phase opened in 2003 linking the British end of the [[Channel Tunnel]] at [[Folkestone]] with Fawkham Junction in Kent. This is used by international only passenger trains for the [[Eurostar]] service, using [[British Rail Class 373|Class 373]] and [[British Rail Class 374|Class 374]] trains. The line was later extended all the way into [[St Pancras railway station|London St Pancras]] in 2007.

After the building of the first of a new [[British Rail Class 395|Class 395]] train fleet for use partly on High Speed 1 and parts of the rest of the UK rail network, the first domestic high-speed running over 125&nbsp;mph (to about 140&nbsp;mph) began in December 2009, including a special Olympic Javelin shuttle for the [[2012 Summer Olympics]]. These services are operated by the [[South Eastern franchise]].

====Intercity Express Programme====
{{Main|Intercity Express Programme}}
The Intercity Express Programme for replacement of the domestic fleet of InterCity 125 and 225 trains on the existing national network was announced. In 2009 it was announced that the preferred rolling stock option for this project was the Hitachi Super Express family of multiple units, and they entered service in 2017 on the Great Western Main Line and in 2019 on the East Coast Main Line. The trains will be capable of a maximum speed of 140&nbsp;mph with "minor modifications", with the necessary signalling modifications required of the [[Network Rail]] infrastructure in Britain likely to come from the phased rollout of the Europe-wide [[European Rail Traffic Management System]] (ERTMS).

====Proposed and partly under construction====
=====High Speed 2=====
{{Main|High Speed 2}}
Following several studies and consultations on high-speed rail, in 2009 the UK Government formally announced the [[High Speed 2]] project, establishing a company to produce a feasibility study to examine route options and financing for a new high-speed railway in the UK. This study began on the assumption the route would be a new purpose-built high-speed line connected to High-Speed 1 to the Channel tunnel and from London to the [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]], via [[Heathrow Airport]], relieving traffic on the [[West Coast Main Line]] (WCML). Conventional high-speed rail technology would be used as opposed to [[Maglev (transport)|Maglev]]. The rolling stock would be capable of travelling on the existing [[Network Rail]] infrastructure if required, with the route intersecting with the existing WCML and the East Coast Main Line (ECML). A cancelled second phase of the project was planned to reach further north to Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds, as well as linking into the [[Midland Main Line]].

=====Northern Powerhouse Rail=====
{{Main|Northern Powerhouse Rail}}

In June 2014, the chancellor of the Exchequer, [[George Osborne]], proposed a high-speed rail link [[Northern Powerhouse Rail]] (also known as High Speed 3 or High Speed North) between Liverpool and Newcastle/Sheffield/Hull. The line would use the existing route between Liverpool and Newcastle/Hull and a new route from to Sheffield will follow the same route to Manchester Victoria and then a new line from Victoria to Sheffield, with additional tunnels and other infrastructure.

====High-speed rolling stock====
As of August 2023 the following rolling stock on the British network is capable of 125&nbsp;mph or more:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Maximum speeds in mph (km/h)
!|Family
!data-sort-type="number" |TOPS classification
!Operator and name
!|Type
!data-sort-type="number" |Recorded speed 
!data-sort-type="number" |Design speed
!data-sort-type="number" |Speed in service
|-
||[[Siemens Velaro|Siemens ''Velaro'']]
||[[British Rail Class 374|374]]
|[[Eurostar]] ''e320''
|[[Electric multiple unit|EMU]]
||219 (352)
||200 (320)
||186 (300)
|-
||[[British Rail Class 373|TGV ''TMST'']]
||[[British Rail Class 373|373]]
|[[Eurostar]] ''e300''
|EMU
||209 (334.7)
||186 (300)
||186 (300)
|-
| rowspan="8"|[[Hitachi A-train|Hitachi A-train ''AT300'']]
||[[British Rail Class 395|395]]
|[[Southeastern (train operating company)|Southeastern]] ''Javelin''
|EMU
||157 (252)<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2008/06/10-hitatchi-hs-milestone.html|title=Bullet train in milestone run on HS1|date=10 June 2008|quote=earlier successful 'overspeed' test to check train stability and ride on 18th April, when the train achieved a maximum speed of 252 km/h|access-date=14 March 2015|archive-date=3 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403012246/http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2008/06/10-hitatchi-hs-milestone.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
||140 (225)
||140 (225)
|-
||[[British Rail Class 800|800]]
|[[Great Western Railway (train operating company)|GWR]] ''IET'', [[London North Eastern Railway|LNER]] ''Azuma''
||[[Electro-diesel multiple unit|BMU]]
||Not known
||140 (225)
||125 (200)
|-
|[[British Rail Class 801|801]]
|[[London North Eastern Railway|LNER]] ''Azuma''
|EMU
|
|140 (225)
|125 (200)
|-
|[[British Rail Class 802|802]]
|[[Great Western Railway (train operating company)|GWR]] ''IET''<br>[[TransPennine Express]] ''Nova 1''<br> [[Hull Trains]] ''Paragon''
|BMU
|
|140 (225)
|125 (200)
|-
|[[British Rail Class 803|803]]
|[[Lumo (train operating company)|Lumo]] ''(unnamed)''
|EMU
|
|140 (225)
|125 (200)
|-
|[[British Rail Class 805|805]]
|[[Avanti West Coast]] ''Evero''
|BMU
|
|140 (225)
|125 (200)
|-
|[[British Rail Class 807|807]]
|[[Avanti West Coast]] ''Evero''
|EMU
|
|140 (225)
|125 (200)
|-
|[[British Rail Class 810|810]]
|[[East Midlands Railway|EMR InterCity]] ''Aurora''
|BMU
|
|140 (225)
|125 (200)
|-
||[[InterCity 225]]
||[[British Rail Class 91|91]] + [[British Rail Mark 4|Mark 4 coaches]]
|[[London North Eastern Railway|LNER]] ''InterCity 225''
||Electric Loco
||162 (261)
||140 (225)
||125 (200)
|-
||[[Alstom]] [[Pendolino#United Kingdom|''Pendolino'']]
||[[British Rail Class 390|390]]
|[[Avanti West Coast]] ''Pendolino''
||EMU
||162 (261)<ref>{{cite news |work =Rail |location =Peterborough |date= 25 February 2009 |issue= 612}}</ref><!---INADEQUATE REFERENCE: needs page number and title of article---->
||140 (225)
||125 (200)
|-
|[[CAF Civity|CAF ''Civity'']]
|[[British Rail Class 397|397]]
|[[TransPennine Express]] ''Nova 2''
|EMU
|
|125 (200)
|125 (200)
|-
||[[InterCity 125]]
||[[British Rail Class 43 (HST)|43 (HST)]] + [[British Rail Mark 3|Mark 3 coaches]]
|[[ScotRail (brand)|ScotRail]] ''Inter7City''
||Diesel Loco
||148 (~240)
||125 (200)
||125 (200)
|-
||Class 67
||[[British Rail Class 67|67]]
|
||Diesel Loco
||143 (230)<ref>{{cite web |title=Class 67 |url=https://sremg.org.uk/diesel/class67.shtml |website=Southern Railway Email Group |access-date=10 March 2021 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511125324/https://sremg.org.uk/diesel/class67.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>
||125 (200)
||125 (200)
|-
||[[Alstom Coradia|Alstom ''Coradia'']] 
||[[British Rail Class 180|180]]
|[[Grand Central (train operating company)|Grand Central]] ''Adelante''
||[[Diesel multiple unit#Diesel–hydraulic|DHMU]]
||125 (200)
||125 (200)
||125 (200)
|-
||[[Bombardier Voyager|Bombardier ''Voyager'']]
||[[British Rail Class 220|220]]
|[[CrossCountry]] ''Voyager''
||[[Diesel-electric Multiple Unit|DEMU]]
||125 (200)
||125 (200)
||125 (200)
|-
||[[Bombardier Voyager|Bombardier ''Voyager'']]
||[[British Rail Class 221|221]]
|[[Avanti West Coast]] ''Super Voyager''<br>[[CrossCountry]] ''Voyager''
||DEMU
||125 (200)
||125 (200)
||125 (200)
|-
||[[Bombardier Voyager|Bombardier ''Voyager'']]
||[[British Rail Class 222|222]]
|[[East Midlands Railway|EMR InterCity]] ''Meridian''
||DEMU
||125 (200)
||125 (200)
||125 (200)
|}
In 2011, the fastest timetabled start-to-stop run by a UK domestic train service was the [[Hull Trains]] 07.30 [[London King's Cross railway station|King's Cross]] to [[Hull Paragon Interchange|Hull]], which covered the {{convert|125.4|km|abbr=in}} from [[Stevenage railway station|Stevenage]] to [[Grantham railway station|Grantham]] in 42{{nbsp}}minutes at an average speed of {{convert|179.1|km/h|abbr=on}}. This was operated by a [[British Rail Class 180|Class 180]] diesel unit running "under the wires" at the time, and is now operated by [[British Rail Class 802|Class 802 ''Paragon'']] bi-mode units, operating on electric power on this section. This was matched by several [[Leeds railway station|Leeds]] to London [[British Rail Class 91|Class 91]]-operated [[East Coast (train operating company)|East Coast]] trains if their two-minute recovery allowance for this section is excluded from the public timetable.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Dr Colin|author2=John Heaton |title=World Speed Survey 2011|journal=Railway Gazette International|date=September 2011|volume= 167| issue =  9|pages=61–70}}</ref>