On Thu, 2 Oct 2008, Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:

Mr Thant wrote:

* There's a mixture of seats including sideways, cross ways and fold
down. I have to say I don't like the angle of the seats for long
journeys on the Met.

The carriage on the left is Met (mixed longitudinal and transverse),
the one on the right is Circle/District (transverse both sides).

Interesting, since my recollection is the carriages are being billed as for
all four lines. (And the map diagrams inside are all Mets.)

I noted that, somewhat pessimistically, the network maps in these future
trains were still showing the ELL as being bustituted.

This does sound as though a spanner has been put in the works of trains
that can easily switch lines as and when necessary.

I think the difference in length will be a bigger spanner.

* The carriages will be used on all four sub-surface lines with platform
lengthenings where necessary (and presumably also track variations).

The Met will still have its own unique trains. (8 vs 7 cars and a
unique seating layout)

As I said in my other post, I think this will continue the problems at
some Circle/H&C/Met stations. The Liverpool Street to Moorgate portion
of my trips often involves a lot of guesswork about where the end car
will stop at.

So don't wait for the end car!

Someone here noted the deficiency of grabbable rails, i think. I visited
the mockups today, and i agree: if you're standing next to the fixed
seats, you may have trouble finding something to grab (that won't get you
arrested). I couldn't see any reason why longitudinal rails couldn't have
been fitted above the fixed seats, as they are above the tip-up seats and
in the vestibule.

I neglected to take my bike in to see how it would fit in the vestibule
and luggage space. Not sure how the staff would have reacted to that!

I overheard one of the TfL chaps (there was a huge posse there - there was
a deaf guy and a guy in wheelchair there, so maybe some kind of visit by
disabled people to inspect the new trains) mention a cunning design
featu the open buttons on the outside of the doors are at the edge, not
in the middle, which leads people who want to get on to move to the side
of the doorway, thus letting passengers off the train first, as the saying
goes. Since the doors will open automatically at any station busy enough
for this to be useful, i am skeptical about the utility of this.

tom

--
That's no moon!