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Annoying things about the Class 378

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phoenixcronin

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Hi this is my first post on the forum although I've been reading for a while, but I just felt I had to post because there are just some little (petty you may argue) things which really annoy me about the 378's, and was wondering if anyone else had noticed?

Some of the automated announcements go a bit overboard, such as reminding people to use headphones and about having a valid ticket bla bla bla. Also, I've noticed that the internal DMI's inside the cars are absolutely not in sync, with each display scrolling at different speeds and therefore displaying different words at the same time. Sometimes the DMI's are so out of sync that for example at Whitechapel it will still be displaying "This is Shadwell"! Really annoying!

Rant over
 
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Khxds

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i absolutely agree with you about the announcements, i always put my earphones in as after a few stops they just become irritating. I find that only TfL do this excessively (in-between nearly every stop on my journeys), and i can't imagine it actually discourages people from deliberately not buying a ticket or accidently leaving behind belongings. It's just noise pollution to me personally.

I personally just look out the window to see where i am rather than looking at the DMI's so i couldn't really comment on that aspect.
 

phoenixcronin

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Not all TFL services are this bad though, for example Underground trains do not have any nonsense announcements and instead just stick to next station and destination announcements.
 

physics34

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Too many announcements

Horrible colours

Awful hard seats

Not enough seats (all taken by Norwood Junction on a West Croydon to Dalston service)

Longitudinal seating

No toilets

Annoying door chimes
 

TH172341

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Personally never had an issue with them - smart inside, seats are fine for the short trips (don't mind the perch seats either). Smooth and quiet riding - no issues really. Don't mind standing on them really due to the nature of the trips involved.
 

tom1649

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My mistake, the announcement is actually something like "please show consideration to other customers when using headphones or other electronic devices etc"

The word 'passenger' seems to have been banned by TfL. I don't hear of airlines referring to 'customers' in such circumstances, although it may happen somewhere. Apart from this, yes I think there are too many announcements.
 

Temple Meads

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Longitudinal seating just isn't for me, it's okay for a one or two stop hop, but some journeys I've made on Overground are really not that short at all, and I wouldn't mind being able to look out of the window without having to either contort my torso, or worse, appear to stare at the strangers opposite..
 

Jordeh

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Longitudinal seating just isn't for me, it's okay for a one or two stop hop, but some journeys I've made on Overground are really not that short at all, and I wouldn't mind being able to look out of the window without having to either contort my torso, or worse, appear to stare at the strangers opposite..
Almost all journeys end to end are less than an hour (or very close).

Take a book, read a newspaper or look at your phone? Shouldn't be a major issue.

Quite rightly, the Overground is focused on providing high capacity rather than providing observation cars. Let's not forget it's just outside of central London, not the Scottish highlands.
 
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Mikey C

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I agree about the bad view out, the Underground S7 stock are far nicer in that respect, with a lot more glass.

Also, unlike the S7 trains where there are no interior intrusions on the windows, the 378s have both window hoppers and the external destination box intruding, and at a perfect height to bang your head :-x
 

samuelmorris

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Given their intended use, unless you're going from say Clapham Junction to Stratford the long way round, the interior seating config on the 378s seems fine to me. My complaints would be:

- announcements can be so long they start to overlap due to the short gap between stations
- door sounders can actually sometimes be too quiet to hear (the doors released warning seems far louder than the arguably more important doors closing)
- ventilation fans seem to have a mind of their own
- Due to the continuous interior it can be less obvious where the pantograph is if like me, you want to avoid sitting under the loud bangs of an Electrostar VCB.

On the whole though, I don't mind travelling on them. There's far worse rolling stock out there.
 

kdoganorak

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What grinds my gears is the announcements for short platforms on ELL. You get told that the platform is short in about three different ways before it gets round to telling you which carriage you are in (when it tells you in numbers not first/last as in preceeding part of the announcement). By this time, the doors are already closing for departure.

I often get very uncomfortable trying to look out of the window but on balance the seating layout is the right one - that standing space is definitely needed at peak times.
 

RichmondCommu

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Exactly as the post above says, you are forced to look at people in front of you and cannot look out of the window.

Given that you are traveling through the suburbs of London what exactly are you hoping to see? Ben Nevis? You're not forced to look at anyone and at the same time more people are able to get on the train because of the longitudinal seating. How do you cope traveling on the Tube with it's longitudinal seating?
 

phoenixcronin

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Given their intended use, unless you're going from say Clapham Junction to Stratford the long way round, the interior seating config on the 378s seems fine to me. My complaints would be:

- announcements can be so long they start to overlap due to the short gap between stations
- door sounders can actually sometimes be too quiet to hear (the doors released warning seems far louder than the arguably more important doors closing)
- ventilation fans seem to have a mind of their own
- Due to the continuous interior it can be less obvious where the pantograph is if like me, you want to avoid sitting under the loud bangs of an Electrostar VCB.

On the whole though, I don't mind travelling on them. There's far worse rolling stock out there.

I agree with much of that, although its still pretty obvious where the pan is as the roof/ceiling is quite visibly lower, and the area under the pan is often slightly duller than the rest of the train, as the lights under the pan well use glass/plastic diffusers instead of metal grille diffusers used elsewhere.

Apart from there being too many announcements, I've witnessed many times what you said about the announcements being too long, for example on the ELL section sometimes the Selective Door Opening Announcement i.e. "this is coach number x of x" is often cut off as the station has already been reached, defeating its purpose!

Apart from these issues, which have been going on for many years and frankly should have been solved by now, I do in fact like the 378's, as they are IMHO very attractive visually, especially on the outside, and I have no issues with longitudinal seating
 
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Deepgreen

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Given that you are traveling through the suburbs of London what exactly are you hoping to see? Ben Nevis? You're not forced to look at anyone and at the same time more people are able to get on the train because of the longitudinal seating. How do you cope traveling on the Tube with it's longitudinal seating?

I happen not to like the seating either because I naturally feel more comfortable sitting at right angles to the direction of travel. In the London suburbs I would expect to see the London suburbs from the window - scenic views are not the only ones with validity. However, the longitudinal seating does provide a huge amount of standing space. I would have liked a mixture, with a few conventional seats for the longer-distance journeys, but that's just a personal wish and not what I would regard as a policy failure. I think the Underground is a little different as a much greater proportion of the journey is likely to be in tunnel.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
It's not the fault of the stock, but the oh-so-slow travel times irk me - the approaches to Clapham Junction, for example are inexplicably limted to 10mph for a very long way out for no apparent reason - once on the 'main line' there it is straight, good condition track - good platform over-runs, etc. The journey from CJ to Canada Water, for example, is quicker by SWT to Waterloo, then a (long-ish) interchange to the Jubilee line, than by direct LO train!
 

cjmillsnun

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I happen not to like the seating either because I naturally feel more comfortable sitting at right angles to the direction of travel.

Then you should find them more comfortable than standard train seating
 

phoenixcronin

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What grinds my gears is the announcements for short platforms on ELL. You get told that the platform is short in about three different ways before it gets round to telling you which carriage you are in (when it tells you in numbers not first/last as in preceeding part of the announcement). By this time, the doors are already closing for departure.

I often get very uncomfortable trying to look out of the window but on balance the seating layout is the right one - that standing space is definitely needed at peak times.

Not only that but the announcement is actually incorrect in several locations. For example on approach to Canada Water the announcement first states that "Due to a short platform, the rear doors of the last coach will not open" but then immediately after "would customers please note that you can only alight from the front 4 coaches as this station has a short platform" which are clearly contradictory and in fact the latter is completely wrong!
 

LeeLivery

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Given that you are traveling through the suburbs of London what exactly are you hoping to see? Ben Nevis? You're not forced to look at anyone and at the same time more people are able to get on the train because of the longitudinal seating. How do you cope traveling on the Tube with it's longitudinal seating?

I actually find the suburbs more interesting to look at than most of the countryside! Its always nice having a view of Canary Wharf when going into London Bridge or seeing the London Skyline in West Norwood/Balham, or seeing the Olympic Park, Emirates Stadium etc.

Agree the announcements are irritating after a while, as they are on Southern too. I will always rather a 377 over a 378 on the Sydenham Corridor because of seating and because people have never fallen on me on a 377!
 
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RichmondCommu

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I think the Underground is a little different as a much greater proportion of the journey is likely to be in tunnel.

I concur however some forum members have stated that they don't like using class 378's because they have to face other people. If that's the case how do they manage on the Tube?
 

Temple Meads

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I concur however some forum members have stated that they don't like using class 378's because they have to face other people. If that's the case how do they manage on the Tube?

I actually don't mind facing other people, but I imagine most people don't like being stared at, or at least the appearance of such.. The alternatives are looking at the floor or the ceiling.

I agree with Deepgreen that's it's hardly an issue on the tube, but I'm still more comfortable sitting 'normally' on 72TS or D Stock.

It's very much a first world problem, and I'm aware that some people love the layout - but it's just not for me.
 

physics34

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Given that you are traveling through the suburbs of London what exactly are you hoping to see? Ben Nevis? You're not forced to look at anyone and at the same time more people are able to get on the train because of the longitudinal seating. How do you cope traveling on the Tube with it's longitudinal seating?

i basically want a choice rather than being forced to look at the mug across the carriage.

I only normally do 3 or 4 stops on the tube etc, but on the overground from west croydon its a good half an hour to Canada Water.
 
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Transverse seating would be much nicer on LO, but the reality is that even off peak services can be very busy and there wouldn't be enough capacity otherwise. The 313s were hellish and that was when the NLL was far quieter than now.

Peak services are already over capacity so the views of the suburbs shall remain elusive.
 

LeeLivery

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Transverse seating would be much nicer on LO, but the reality is that even off peak services can be very busy and there wouldn't be enough capacity otherwise. The 313s were hellish and that was when the NLL was far quieter than now.

Peak services are already over capacity so the views of the suburbs shall remain elusive.

With future 8 car trains planned for the NLL (sure I read that in Wessex RUS), it would be nice to see S8 style seating then.
 

Emblematic

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With future 8 car trains planned for the NLL (sure I read that in Wessex RUS), it would be nice to see S8 style seating then.

Are you sure you weren't thinking about 8 car Southern services to MK on the WLL?

Ironically, even S8s are now built as S7+1, the extra trains on the Met will have longitudinal seats, as it's deemed too costly to reconfigure the production line back to S8 configuration at the end of the S7 build.
 
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