Boltar wrote:
There was a short piece on BBC london news on TV last night about
the new vic line trains and an interview with some bod at (I
think) Bombardier. Anyway , turns out that it looks like the
prototypes at least will have less seating (quelle surprise) and
a lot of what seating is left will be flip up so theres room for
all these mythical wheelchair bound passengers we keep hearing
about but no one has ever actually seen. Wonderful. So not only
will more people have to stand but the ones sitting will have a
much less comfortable journey too. Well theres progress for you.
Call me a cynic but I can't help thinking that flip up seats are
probably a lot cheaper than the real thing though I'm sure this
in no way would influence their decision , no no, not at all.

In Paris, the tip-up seats[1] work very well. They have mostly normal
seating, with the tip-ups near the doors, the intention being that when
the train is not too busy there is plenty of seating, but that when it
gets busy those people will stand up, enabling more people to fit in the
carriage.

When I say it works very well, I mean that as soon as it gets busy,
people immediately stand up and make room for others.

As I am sure you know, they have them here on the Northern Line now but
they don't work very well at all, as people are just too selfish to let
anyone else on once they are on the train and comfortable. (Yet, they
will moan if they can't actually get on in the first place.)

Same problem with the "priority luggage" areas on Piccadilly trains -
people quite rightly stand in them when they can, yet make no attempt to
move if someone gets on with a large suitcase, which they are then
forced to leave in the middle of the carriage, thus getting in the way
of everyone else.

[1] and are called "strapontins" which sounds rude and always makes me
smile :-)