Avanti: Racing the Rails

Pendolinos tilt by up to eight degrees which means they can travel 20% faster around curves in the track

Avanti’s 390017 Pendolino was named “Blue Peter” in October 2018 to celebrate the BBC show’s 60th anniversary#

There is a quiet coach on every Avanti Pendolinos; Coach A

Everos run on power from overhead lines but switch to diesel where there is no electricity supply

They replaced Avanti’s Super Voyager trains as part of our Net Zero 2031 Commitment

Evero trains replaced Avanti’s Super Voyager trains as part of our Net Zero 2031 Commitment

The working names of the Trans-Siberian Express trains are Rossiya 001 and Rossiya 002

The journey between Moscow and Vladivostok takes 144 hours (six days)

The trip takes in two time zones, 90 cities, 14 regions, two continents, and 9,259 miles, departing every other day

The Orient Express was once the byword for international luxury train travel from Paris to Istanbul

“Murder on the Orient Express”, named after the service, is one of Agatha Christie’s most beloved works

The service ended in December 2009, blaming cut-price air tickets and high-speed trains

The original journey took 10½ hours. Today it takes just 4 hours to travel between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverley

In the 1930s, the Flying Scotsman was pulled by LNER Class A4 engines which set the world record for the world’s fastest steam train

On 6 March 2020, the service was renamed “The Flying Scotswoman” to celebrate International Women’s Day

The first TGV prototype was gas-powered but the French government decided to switch to electric following the 1973 energy crisis

After its successful launch, the French built a nationwide network for the TGV trains reaching from the Belgium border in the North to Marseilles in the South

Overhead electricity lines in France are AC- and DC-powered. When switching between lines, the trains coast before reconnecting to the new supply.

The e320 trains are quadri-current, allowing them to operate not just in the UK and France but neighbouring Germany too

There are three Channel Tunnels - one for trips from the UK to France, one for France to UK trips, and a safety and maintenance tunnel.

When e320s run in the UK, they can only run on High Speed 1 line linking London with the Channel Tunnel

The Indian Pacific travels from Sydney on the Pacific coast to Perth on the Indian Ocean and is one of the world's longest transcontinental train journeys

The journey takes 2,704 km in one continuous journey, taking 70.5-75 hours to complete

The trip has featured in two BBC documentaries, one in 1980 with Michael Frayn and again in 2019 with Michael Portillo.

The Presidential Suite, the only example of its kind among luxury international trains, has a living room, washroom, two bedrooms, and a personal valet

There are 14 guest carriages on every trip with each carriage having a capacity of 84 passengers

One of the world’s top 25 trains according to The Society of International Railway Travelers and the top prize winner at the Conde Nast Travelers Reader's Choice Travel 1 Grand Prix

The Super Chief was nicknamed “the train of the stars” because it regularly carried Hollywood celebrities

The journey of 2,227 miles took 39 hours and 20 minutes to complete

Amtrak renamed the service in 1974 to “Southwest Limited” after a drop in passenger service quality

Earthquakes are common in Japan so trains are fitted with strong braking systems and anti-derailment devices to protect passengers

Experiments are underway to increase the maximum speed of the Shinkansen to 360 mph. For perspective, London and Belfast are 322 miles apart as the crow flies.

You can see a retired Shinkansen at the National Railway Museum in York. It’s one of two bullet trains that you can see outside Japan.

Turbo spearheaded “Feel Good Travel” in the same week Avanti reintroduced extra services on its Manchester, West Midlands, and North Wales routes.

Tom Kuntz, winner of the DGA’s “Outstanding Directorial Achievement Commercials” and Chicago International Film Festival nominee, storyboarded and directed Turbo’s advert.

Turbo was brought to life by Untold Studios, who have previously worked on VFX for the “Mission Impossible” franchise, Netflix’s “Sandman”, and Amazon’s “The Boys”.