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date 30 April 2008
source East Midlands Trains
type Press release

Train operator East Midlands held a celebration event in Leeds today. At the event the company honoured ‘Terry Miller MBE’ (see note 2) by naming their first reliveried East Midlands Trains powercar (43048) after him.

Tim Shoveller, Managing Director of East Midlands Trains, hosting the event, said: ”It is with great pride that we honour Terry by naming one of our powercars after him. He is a true giant in the history of the railway and his design has stood the test of time. It quite impressive that we are still talking about him and his work over 30 years later. To get an idea of just what an incredible design Terry gave us, you only have to look at our HST fleet’s current performance – operating at a peak of 18,000 miles per five minutes delay (see note 7). We believe this is the best performance ever for an HST fleet and is comparable with the performance of many more recently designed engines.”

The nameplate was unveiled by John Miller, Terry Miller’s son. John said: “I am so pleased to be here on behalf of my father who would have been very proud today. He toiled very hard over this project and it's great for him to be honoured in this way."

Roger Ford, railway commentator and expert who has long campaigned for Terry to be honoured in this way said: “As British Rail's Chief Engineer for Traction & Rolling Stock, Terry led the design team at Derby Railway Technical Centre which produced the High Speed Train, the mainstay of long distance rail travel in the UK for 30 years and destined to stay in front line service for another decade. The HST remains the standard by which other trains are judged and, as East Midlands Trains chart topping reliability figures show, is still getting better. I have long been of the opinion that like the great engineers of steam, Terry Miller should have his name on one of his creations.

"His unique train is a combination of vision and caution, Terry under promised and over achieved with this design.”

For those not able to attend the event today ‘Terry Miller MBE’ will enter service on Friday 2nd May and will operate the 07.26 service from Leeds to St. Pancras International calling at Sheffield (08.27), Chesterfield (08.40), Derby (09.01) and Leicester (09.28). If you wish to visit any of these stations to photograph the train please call the East Midlands Trains press office 01332 262010.

TCB Miller powercar Terry Miller Terry Miller powercar 2

NOTES TO EDITORS

2) Terry Miller MBE was born in 1909. He served as a premium apprentice under Sir Nigel Gresley at Doncaster with London & North Eastern Railway. He held a number of appointments throughout the country with LNER and British Rail (Eastern Region) which culminated in him being appointed as Chief Engineer (Traction & Rolling Stock) for British Railways Board in 1968 being based in Derby. It was then that he provided the influence and enthusiasm behind the development of the High Speed Train or "InterCity 125" which revolutionised train travel within the UK in the seventies. This train was developed using existing technology in approximately 18 months and become the mainstay and benchmark for InterCity travel over the next 30 years. The HST is still in frontline service today and is loved by staff and passengers alike. It remains to this day the fastest diesel train in the world and was exported to Australia. Its performance remains comparable to more modern trains. Terry Miller MBE retired in 1973 before his creation entered service and died in 1989.

3) East Midlands Trains operate high speed long distance services from London St. Pancras to Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham and regional services between Nottingham and Derby – Lincoln – Cleethorpes – Skegness, and between Derby and Crewe - Matlock and Norwich and Liverpool.

4) The franchise will run until 31 March 2015, the last year and four months of which will be conditional upon achieving pre-set performance targets.

5) Highlights of improvements include faster journey times from Sheffield and Leicester to London from 2008, better performance, more seats, train refurbishment, investment at Derby’s Etches Park train maintenance depot, a centralised information and security centre, more car parking spaces and two new stations – at East Midlands Parkway and Corby.

6) Stagecoach Group is a leading international transportation group, with extensive bus and rail operations in the UK and North America. Stagecoach operates South West Trains the UK’s biggest commuter rail network with nearly 1,700 trains a day out of London Waterloo. In addition, Stagecoach has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group.

7) Britain's measurement of reliability – ‘miles per five minutes delay’ (MP5MD) is one of the most strictly defined and rigorously monitored on Europe's railways. It defines the average mileage each train in a fleet runs between a failure causing a delay of five minutes or more.

Railhub Archive ::: 2008-04-30 EMT-001