Hi,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5186896.stm

Just wondered if anyone else thinks it would be far more hygenic, more
pleasant & acceptable if the decision to no longer cover seats on new
trains in fabric was made.

Maybe as other mass transit systems use, eg, New York, a hard rigid
plastic. Still comfortable to sit on given that you are only on it
briefly !!! and not holding hidden all kinds of gunk that must be
embedded in the fabric.....

Just Wondered !

Craig wrote:

Hi,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5186896.stm

Just wondered if anyone else thinks it would be far more hygenic, more
pleasant & acceptable if the decision to no longer cover seats on new
trains in fabric was made.

Maybe as other mass transit systems use, eg, New York, a hard rigid
plastic. Still comfortable to sit on given that you are only on it
briefly !!! and not holding hidden all kinds of gunk that must be
embedded in the fabric.....

Just Wondered !


Plastic seats, no way!

I think they would be less pleasant and less acceptable. I don't think
there's any real hygiene problem at all either.

I always find this desire to try and ensure everything is
microscopically sanitised is pretty pointless and unachievable.
Microscopic organisms are an essential part of life on earth.

Mizter T wrote:
Craig wrote:

Hi,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5186896.stm

Just wondered if anyone else thinks it would be far more hygenic, more
pleasant & acceptable if the decision to no longer cover seats on new
trains in fabric was made.

Maybe as other mass transit systems use, eg, New York, a hard rigid
plastic. Still comfortable to sit on given that you are only on it
briefly !!! and not holding hidden all kinds of gunk that must be
embedded in the fabric.....

Just Wondered !

Plastic seats, no way!

I think they would be less pleasant and less acceptable. I don't think
there's any real hygiene problem at all either.

New Yorkers might accept plastic seats on their subway trains, but I doubt
very much Londoners would!!!

On 17 Jul 2006 05:19:31 -0700, Mizter T wrote:

Just wondered if anyone else thinks it would be far more hygenic, more
pleasant & acceptable if the decision to no longer cover seats on new
trains in fabric was made.

Plastic seats, no way!

I think they would be less pleasant and less acceptable. I don't think
there's any real hygiene problem at all either.

I always find this desire to try and ensure everything is
microscopically sanitised is pretty pointless and unachievable.
Microscopic organisms are an essential part of life on earth.

Indeed. Some of this tube seat hygiene mania may be traced to a hoax
email that was doing the rounds a few years ago:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/london.asp

Stevo wrote:
Mizter T wrote:
Craig wrote:

Hi,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5186896.stm

Just wondered if anyone else thinks it would be far more hygenic, more
pleasant & acceptable if the decision to no longer cover seats on new
trains in fabric was made.

Maybe as other mass transit systems use, eg, New York, a hard rigid
plastic. Still comfortable to sit on given that you are only on it
briefly !!! and not holding hidden all kinds of gunk that must be
embedded in the fabric.....

Just Wondered !

Plastic seats, no way!

I think they would be less pleasant and less acceptable. I don't think
there's any real hygiene problem at all either.

New Yorkers might accept plastic seats on their subway trains, but I doubt
very much Londoners would!!!


It's not like they'd have any choice. They've "accepted" the appalling
layout on the Jubilee, where one person can stand in the space occupied
by two flip up seats on similar Northern Line stock (because there is
no allowance for the top half of the body of a standing passenger, nor
the fact that you can't lean on the head of an adjacent seated
passenger).

I haven't seen the mockup yet, but the diagrams in MR suggested that
these obvious shortcomings might have been recognised at last, ie that
space needs to be divided efficiently into passenger sized chunks that
allow a person to balance without leaning on someone else, whether
standing or not, and that wide open space is not necessarily usable.

And that people have top halves to their bodies. And that people
leaning against a sloping wall have to balance by splaying their legs
out further than they would if sitting in a flip up seat.

Similar things could be learned about the 376s on SET. Come to think
about it, maybe the aliens who designed all these trains should be
given lessons in human anatomy.

asdf wrote:
On 17 Jul 2006 05:19:31 -0700, Mizter T wrote:

Just wondered if anyone else thinks it would be far more hygenic, more
pleasant & acceptable if the decision to no longer cover seats on new
trains in fabric was made.

Plastic seats, no way!

I think they would be less pleasant and less acceptable. I don't think
there's any real hygiene problem at all either.

I always find this desire to try and ensure everything is
microscopically sanitised is pretty pointless and unachievable.
Microscopic organisms are an essential part of life on earth.

Indeed. Some of this tube seat hygiene mania may be traced to a hoax
email that was doing the rounds a few years ago:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/london.asp


In any case, I think fabric reverts to being sittable on faster after
spillages than a plastic seat on which puddles of goo would have no way
of dissipating.

MIG ) gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying :

Come to think about it, maybe the aliens who designed all these trains
should be given lessons in human anatomy.

Or just made to use the trains every day...?

Mizter T wrote:

Plastic seats, no way!

Plastic seats = static shocks

Stevo wrote:

(snip)

New Yorkers might accept plastic seats on their subway trains, but I doubt
very much Londoners would!!!


I actually think plastic seats would create a more amenable or
attractive environment for vandalism.

Bizarrely, on some London Central buses on the top-deck the back three
rows (i.e. the rear-most forward facing, the accompanying backward
facing and then the next forward facing rows) are plastic seats. I
don't now why this is - perhaps because the occupants of said seats are
frequently shifty characters who might be considered more prone to
commit vandalism, though I can't see that really being the thinking
behind it. However if that really is the logic behind these platic
seats then it's a self fulfilling prophecy - said back plastic seats
are often the most dirty (more so than the back of other buses),
sometimes with the addition of marker pen graffiti on the seats
themselves (which I admit absurdly also occurs on fabric seats, but
much less frequently).

Anyway, thankfully, plastic seats are definitely not on the agenda
whatsoever.

asdf wrote:

On 17 Jul 2006 05:19:31 -0700, Mizter T wrote:

Just wondered if anyone else thinks it would be far more hygenic, more
pleasant & acceptable if the decision to no longer cover seats on new
trains in fabric was made.

Plastic seats, no way!

I think they would be less pleasant and less acceptable. I don't think
there's any real hygiene problem at all either.

I always find this desire to try and ensure everything is
microscopically sanitised is pretty pointless and unachievable.
Microscopic organisms are an essential part of life on earth.

Indeed. Some of this tube seat hygiene mania may be traced to a hoax
email that was doing the rounds a few years ago:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/london.asp


Thanks for linking to that - it was in the back of my mind as I
composed my first post. The gist of said hoax email has now become
oft-quoted urban mythology.