BRITAIN’S only railway test track, which has been used to try out hundreds of new trains and safety systems in the past 35 years, is to close under the Government’s programme to cut subsidies to the industry.

The loss of the Asfordby test track means future high-speed trains will almost certainly be built abroad. The British rail industry, once the most innovative in the world, will have to rely on foreign suppliers for modern technology.

New trains will have to be tested on the live network, which is already full during much of the day. Trains will also enter service before all their teething troubles have been resolved, increasing the frequency of breakdowns while carrying passengers.

The Department for Transport has refused to save the 12-mile line in the East Midlands, despite being offered it free of charge by its present operator, Alstom. The department would have had to pay only the annual running costs of £1.8 million, a fraction of the £6.5 billion subsidy the railways will consume this year The department wrote to Alstom last month saying Network Rail had no immediate use for the track. There is at present a lull in the introduction of new trains, because many of the oldest fleets have been replaced. But many more new trains will be needed over the next decade to cope with demand on Europe’s fastest-growing railway.

Network Rail admits it will need a test track, but is considering renting one at Valenciennes, near Lille, in northern France.

The Asfordby track was upgraded only six years ago at a cost of £25 million to test Virgin’s Pendolino tilting trains at speeds of up to 125mph.

The track’s tight curves made it ideal for testing the trains. It was used in the 1970s to test British Rail’s tilting Advanced Passenger Train, which was a technical success but tended to make passengers feel sick.

The track has also been used to test a signalling system that automatically stops trains if they run past red lights.

The Pendolinos were taken back to the track last year to tackle a problem with the brakes that had resulted in trains hitting the buffers.

Tony Mercado, the Alstom manager in charge of the track, said: “We offered it to Network Rail at no charge. I find it bizarre that an organisation of that size would say they didn’t want it. They could at least have used it for training their staff, because training on the main line is expensive.”

Mr Mercado is now preparing to rip up rails from the track’s train shed and cut off the electricity supply when the facility closes on January 31. More than £2 million worth of testing equipment will be removed, making it very difficult to bring the line back into use at a later date.

The Railway Forum, the industry’s leading think-tank, said that the track could have been used to test the new diesel 125mph trains being planned to replace the 35-year-old High Speed Trains (HST) used by First Great Western and Midland Mainline.

Adrian Lyons, the forum’s director, said: “It is a great shame to lose this facility just as we have learnt the lesson that new trains do not work properly straight out of the factory.

“They need to be tested very thoroughly before being put into service.”

Roger Ford, technical editor of Modern Railways magazine, said that closure of the track would make the British network more reliant on equipment developed abroad which might be less suitable.

“Under British Rail the track was part of the world’s leading railway research centre. Now we have to rely on foreign suppliers who know less than BR did. The closure shows how bankrupt Network Rail is when it comes to looking at the future of the network.”

A Network Rail spokesman said: “A decision was made that there just isn’t the business case to justify keeping it.”

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