The APT

In different countries there are different words or phrases that everybody knows, but which outsiders don't.  This also works with age groups.  For example, the name Thatcher is recognised by people my age and older, while some teenagers in the UK don't even know that she used to be the Prime Minister.  For those who recognise her name, the response is often positive or negative, but hardly ever neutral (she wasn't that sort of Prime Minister).

So what is it that makes some people from Britain bow their heads with embarrassment when they hear of 'The APT'?  Well, let me tell you what it stands for: Advanced Passenger Train.  Now, do you think this is going to be a success story?

British Rail wanted to develop a high-speed train.  They had the technology to make something fast.  So far, so good.  The track on the west coast (the West Coast Main Line, WCML) however, has a lot of curves that make it difficult to travel along at high speeds.  The train can stay on the rails, but at speed it would be too uncomfortable for the passengers.  They would be thrown from side to side all the time.  Here's the solution: make the train tilt, lean over, as it goes round the bends.

If only it were that simple.  After years and years of research, British Rail had something that sort-of worked, but could be better.  It tilted, but perhaps too much.  Passengers were not used to seeing the track out of the window one minute and the sky the next.  BR adjusted it a bit, and the customers were happier.  Then there were some breakdowns that the newspapers took a lot of interest in (obviously there were no major crimes or political scandals to cover at the time!).

Then a group of management analysts looked at the APT project.  They said something not very encouraging.  'BR have the technology,' they said, 'but not the management expertise to run the project.'  Oh dear.  Then the Prime Minister (Margaret Thatcher, the one I mentioned earlier) decided that this was not worth spending taxpayers' money on.

So from the middle of the eighties onwards, the letters APT were known as a symbol of expensive ideas that didn't work properly.  But the tilting train was not dead.  The Italians developed the project further and perfected it.  Did you see that train in the film Casino Royale?  That was it.  They did a good job with it!

Guess what happened next?  The British bought the technology from the Italians.  Yes, you read that correctly.  It started in Britain, the Italians bought and developed it, and then they sold it back to the British.  Hmm.  There's a lesson in there somewhere, but I'm not sure what it is.

Glossary

to recognise                            rozpoznać

embarrassment                       zażenowanie

to tilt                                      przechylić

a bend                                    zakręcić

to adjust                                 regulować

expertise                                 biegłość

to perfect something              udoskonalić

There are six words related to rail travel here, and six clues to help.

Down

1. You wait on one of these for the train.  The train arrives at (not on) it.

2. When you change trains, this is what you are making.

Across

3. This is a place to get something to eat.  It can be one of the coaches on a train or part of a station.  It's also called a refreshment room.

4. A train service where you can sleep.  These, in the UK, run from London to Scotland and to Penzance (in the west of England).

5. This was originally a special kind of fast train in Britain.  Now the word is used in many countries, including Poland.

6. One of these guarantees you a seat on a particular train.

KEY

1. platform
2. connection
3. buffet
4. sleeper
5. intercity
6. reservation

Did you know?

The experimental APT was the fastest gas-turbine train in the world.  It can be seen in the National Railway Museum in York.  The prototype version was electric.

Poland is getting a couple of new high-speed lines in the near future.  One of them is going to be from Wrocław to Warsaw.