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e27002 aurora

On Fri, 23 Oct 2015 15:26:04 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Friday, 23 October 2015 17:04:57 UTC+1, Recliner wrote:
wrote:
On Fri, 23 Oct 2015 15:49:46 +0100
e27002 aurora wrote:
On Fri, 23 Oct 2015 14:32:15 +0000 (UTC), d wrote:
The internal design of modern trains leaves a lot to be desired, whether its
what you mentioned, needlessly thick interior panels using up space, a lack
of
handrails for standing passengers, door bleepers that would wake the dead
and deafen anyone standing next to them and seats that are too narrow for
anyone larger than Kate Moss proportions.

Strange thing: In the early days of passenger travel by rail folks
travelled in discomfort. Those were the days of wooden bench seats
and no heating.

As time passed passenger comfort increased. By WWII trains had sprung
seats, heating, you name it. This lasted until the 1980s.

Thats something I'd forgotten - seat padding or lack thereof. It seems its
gone out of fashion with train builders and now we're supposed to sit on
upholstered shelves. The 378s on London Overground are particularly bad.

Yes, the thickness of the cushions seems to be proportional to the age of
the train. There have been articles on this topic in Modern Railways.

The high water mark for comfort on ordinary stock was Mk1 first class
compartments - the compartments are actually more comfortable than the
open firsts, as the seat bases in the compartments are also sprung,
whereas the opens are not - when the Mk1s were built, proper 1st class
always meant compartments, first opens were basically dining cars.

Everything since then has been a downgrade in comfort.

First Class is something I did not enjoy back in the 50s, 60, and 70s.
However, I do recall standard class Mk 1s as being comfortable enough.
It would be churlish to criticize the various iterations of the Mk 2.
They were a work in progress and each version was an improvement.

The HST Mk 3s in their original format were outstanding. I remember
my first journey in one from Reading. The comfort was notable as was
the acceleration. And, I enjoyed the new style buffet.

Since then none of the refurbishments have taken them anywhere near
their original standard of comfort.

In 1994 I moved to Los Angeles after living back in the UK for six
years. AT the first opportunity I took a ride on the brand new Blue
Line to Long Beach. One of my first observations was how
uncomfortable the seating was. The seats in LA Metro cars are not
particularly big and are basically GRP with the thinnest layer of
upholstering.

"Aha" I thought "At least back in the UK the seats are much more
comfortable, even on the London Underground!". :-)