Tom Anderson writes:

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006, A Woodcraft wrote:
In fact, don't the seats in the end carriages on a Pendolino face
backwards (when leading) for this reason?

Why only the end carriages? Is the deceleration harsher there? I would
have thought that a train was rigid enough that the deceleration was
more or less equal throughout, but given that this is a Pendo we're
talking about, nothing would surprise me ...

The only reason that would make sense would be crashworthiness, for
similar reasons as passengers not being allowed to travel (facing in any
direction) in the front 3rd of the coach.

On the other hand, it might just be the best way they found to cram
enough seats into a coach where 1/3rd (or more in the case of 1st
class because of the Kitchen) is out of bounds.