cjmillsnun
Established Member
- Joined
- 13 Feb 2011
- Messages
- 3,254
Given the proper information before boarding nobody would ever have to move forward 5 coaches, unless they're too stupid to understand what the difference is between the front and rear of the train of course
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Would you really be concerned about a slightly slower journey if you had a much longer train and many more seats available each time you travelled in a 222 rather than a 158 ?
More seats?
Do you know how many seats SWT can pack in a 159?
There's a big difference seat wise between a 9 car 159 and a 10 car 222, in the favour of the 159s.
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_222)
5 car 222 has 192 standard and 50 first class seats..
From South West trains
http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/our-trains.aspx#78000
3 car 159/0 has 170 standard, 23 first and 13 tip up seats.
3 car 159/1 has 170 standard, 24 first and 19 tip up seats.
Simple maths sells you that the 159s will have the greater capacity.
They also run as 10 cars, (2x 158s and 2x159s)
2 car 158 in SWT trim has 114 standard, 13 first and 9 tip up seats...
So a 10 car 158/159 combo has up to 698 seats, compared to 484 on the Meridian.
And I find that the seats in SWT trim 158/159s are very comfortable, and the train isn't unpleasant to be in.
Even if the 222 was refitted to a similar number of seats, it is still thirstier and slower than the sprinters (if there are differential speeds). And it wouldn't be any more comfortable either.
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Why do Sprinters get much better speed limits there?
They are much lighter and cause less damage to the track.