Northern has definitely got a lot better at this over the past few years though. Some of the refreshes have made a big difference.
Really ? Could have fooled me. I've been a regular rail user since about 2011, if this is a big difference, I'm happy not to have seen what state the fleet was in under the previous franchise ! The seats in the refreshed Pacers are nice, but then I can only sit in the middle facing seats, the loos are still a no-go area of urine for me, the bits falling apart are still evident. The regular 158's on the Leeds-Nottingham stopper were awful compared to the EMT Liverpool-Norwich units, but even the EMT units are starting to fall apart. If remaining in service, the 14x & 15x fleets up here need a full refurbishment to bring them up to an acceptable standard, the EMT units have (in my view) the decent seats, but that's about it from a customer perspective.