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LNER Azuma (Class 800/801)

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Goldfish62

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Metroman62 said:
I travelled on the Azuma yesterday from Leeds to Kings Cross. I travelled in coach K, First Class. I have travelled on the equivalent coach on a GWR IET and must say the LNER version looks much brighter. My wife thought it was a different type of train to the GWR one, the difference was that great for her.

In the great scheme of things, the train is perfectly fine and I doubt that any changes will be made to it for quite some time, but after I have had a few more journeys on them I will give LNER some feedback which may be of use along with others for future developments.

Yes, like many other I found the seats hard, although you tend to get used to them. Whether it was a combination of the lively ride of the coach at times and the firmness of the seat, I did feel I was moving in my seat more that I would have thought. I found at the end of the journey you can raise the head pad!

I like the reservations system. I am visually impaired, but could easily tell from the platform which seats were free and which were not. I was able to find my seat OK, but having the seat number under the luggage rack makes it a bit dark, its a shame the seat numbers don't light up. I often travel this route with my wife and we like to sit on the single row of seats facing each other, but the Azum's have very few of this type of seat configuration which is a shame, but I assume it is because they can fit more airline style first class seats in.

I was disappointed there are no curtains, only blinds. This means if one person needs to reduce the light coming in through the window, the other person sharing the window has to too. Not only that, but owing to the curve of the window, the blind does not go completely down leaving 4 - 6 inches of window. this could be annoying on a sunny day when sunlight can't be shield from a laptop screen or similar. The blind also does not seem that thick or dark, so on a sunny day how effective will they be. The curtains on and HST or Mark 4 are not perfect, but seem more flexible. Also the lack of the a curtain track at the bottom of the window means there is no easy play to put the menu out of the way or stick your phone it it - real first world problems!

The table appeared bigger, but at the window end it curves upward towards the window, so you can't put cups etc right at that end, reducing the space, I can' think why they did day.

The aisle seems wider, when the trolley was going down, people could pass it at a push, but there again the trolleys seemed smaller!

The step into / out of the coach seemed bigger which should help getting on and off. I liked the sliding doors between the coach connections which are extra to the sliding doors into the seating area. As long as they work it should reduce noise. In Coach K you could hear the electric motors etc, not a real issue.

The toilet was fine, nice clear buttons with labels. It is so annoying these days at times to go into a public toilet which has automatic water / soap dispensers and driers and does not put clear labels on them, as you can end up wafting your hands around hoping something will happen! The sink seems narrow which meant the floor seemed to get wet easily. The door lock was clear (I did not try the disabled toilet), in may ways it seemed over engineered. The large luggage store area opposite the toilet was confusing people. I and others on auto pilot just opened the door and was shocked to find no toilet in there!

So on the whole the trains are fine, with some annoying bits. Will the age well and will the price of tickets attract us to keep travelling with them? Probably yes as I have no real other practical choice.

Hopefully attached are some picture of some of the features mentioned above.

View attachment 64317 View attachment 64318 View attachment 64319 View attachment 64320 View attachment 64321
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Thanks for the interesting review. Raises some issues not mentioned before.
 
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Monkeyhead

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I had my first trip on an Azuma today, the 07.38 Selby to KX, in 800111, fresh into service yesterday according to the (very nice) train manager. Travelled in coach H, the quiet(er) coach, which was very lightly loaded. Was booked into Seat 78, but the row 75 - 78 were all beautifully aligned with a window pillar, so I took an available seat on the row behind in 82. The row behind that, 83 - 86 have virtually no window at all, so are to be avoided if you like a view (though may be a boon for the early morning or late evening low sun issues).

Seats, as widely reported, are much harder than the Mk3 or Mk4 equivalent, there's certainly no sinking into them. Not that they were uncomfortable, but there wasn't much give. Maybe they'll soften in time. The legroom is excellent though - I'm 6'3" so normally end up with my knees hitting something, but there was loads of room.

Plugs are a little tricky to locate under the seats, but the fold down tables are good, and the extension piece welcome, not only for laptops but for notepads etc.

The carriage felt nice and airy, the lighting not overly harsh like the GWR ones. This set arrived and departed Selby on diesel, and while it was audible, it wasn't like being on a Voyager or 185. I guess at Doncaster we switched to overhead, again, it wasn't silent, but there wasn't the odd whine that runs through the Mk4's. Acceleration seemed brisk enough, but it wasn't "push back in your seat" like I remember from my one trip on a Javelin. Seat reservation system was lovely and clear, was very obvious what seats were free and which weren't.

Ride was quite noisy and bumpy over poorer sections of track, but was perfectly acceptable on the main lines.

Overall, I think they're a very nice train. The seating space and information electronics are excellent. They've probably missed a trick with the seats, if they'd have had more "comfy" seats, I think they would have been onto a real winner. It will be interesting to see if/when anyone tries a different seat in one of these, though I assume it won't be for a while, if they are allowed under whatever DaFT rules exist.

So not the horror journey I'd feared, but room for development as and when time/money allows. Just watch what seats you're booking if you want a window!!
 
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samuelmorris

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Monkeyhead said:
Overall, I think they're a very nice train. The seating space and information electronics are excellent. They've probably missed a trick with the seats, if they'd have had more "comfy" seats, I think they would have been onto a real winner. It will be interesting to see if/when anyone tries a different seat in one of these, though I assume it won't be for a while, if they are allowed under whatever DaFT rules exist.

So not the horror journey I'd feared, but room for development as and when time/money allows. Just watch what seats you're booking if you want a window!!
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This I think is the main reason why the seats get moaned about incessantly, they really are the only thing marring actually quite a good product, especially in LNER's iteration that retains the buffet and has a better colour scheme. As for the Mk4 whine I believe that's inverter noise, which is right to mention as the tonal quality of the A/C noise in Hitachi units is something I've seen some complaints about, but I find that less obtrusive than the Mk4's inverters (though I can't say either bother me very much, I can certainly see why they'd be annoying).
 
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Bletchleyite

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samuelmorris said:
This I think is the main reason why the seats get moaned about incessantly, they really are the only thing marring actually quite a good product, especially in LNER's iteration that retains the buffet and has a better colour scheme.
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Agreed. Everything else is minor, but the seats really are very bad. Put a better seat in (we can debate all night about what constitutes a better seat, but there are plenty of options that don't get whined about nearly half as much) and it would be a good if old-fashioned[1] product.

It wouldn't even require the bases to be swapped, a different cushion could be used. If you look at Fainsa's website there seem to be lots of options.

[1] I still think a trick was missed by not mandating low floor/level boarding - Europe is well ahead of us on this now.
 
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samuelmorris

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Bletchleyite said:
Agreed. Everything else is minor, but the seats really are very bad. Put a better seat in (we can debate all night about what constitutes a better seat, but there are plenty of options that don't get whined about nearly half as much) and it would be a good if old-fashioned[1] product.

It wouldn't even require the bases to be swapped, a different cushion could be used. If you look at Fainsa's website there seem to be lots of options.

[1] I still think a trick was missed by not mandating low floor/level boarding - Europe is well ahead of us on this now.
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Get someone to photoshop an interior photo of an LNER 800 with Grammer E3000s instead ;)
 
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samuelmorris

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Bletchleyite said:
ICE3000, please - we have standards! :D
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Let's not derail the thread any further, but there seem to be almost as many complaints about the IC3000s as the Sophias!

My only IET trips thus far have been between Paddington and Reading so I haven't had the opportunity to test the seating for a long trip. If I ever do another trip up to Leeds or York as I used to do regularly in the previous DOR East Coast days, I'll see how I fare then. As much as I remember thinking 'oh wow, these are hard' when I first sat in a 700 I latterly ran a couple of hour+ long trips from Haywards Heath to Farringdon without issue and found them perfectly adequate. If all else fails, I'll start bringing a cushion with me :)

More on-topic, has it been stated anywhere how many diagrams 800s will be running after the first few 91s are withdrawn? I'm assuming every time a 91 goes off-lease another 800 diagram will appear, but that does seem a little simplistic.
 
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Meerkat

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Ilkley333 said:
Sadly I always have to work when I am travelling and personally i think that I’d hate it - having no point of reference out of a window whilst glued to a laptop on a moving train seems like a recipe for motion sickness, but each to their own!
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It would be a recipe for avoiding motion sickness for me. The only time i get motion sick is if I read in a train/car whilst being able to see outside.
 
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Bletchleyite

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Meerkat said:
It would be a recipe for avoiding motion sickness for me. The only time i get motion sick is if I read in a train/car whilst being able to see outside.
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I reckon for Standard they should have made it a single seat. That would have given it another attraction for some (e.g. travelling alone and wanting a kip or to work). As it is it's a narrow double seat with no centre armrest that nobody will want.
 
3973EXL

3973EXL

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5X40/41
Doncaster - Acton - Eastleigh
800106
Haul 5X82 north tomorrow
 
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ainsworth74

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And this is probably the moment for me to jump in and provide a gentle reminder for everyone that for all your diagram needs you should check out the diagram thread which can be found here ;)
 
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samuelmorris

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westv said:
I find the Met line seats more comfortable then the Azuma ones.
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As you'd expect, they are padded. It'll be interesting to see what the new Tube stock get fitted with, given the atrocities that the 345s (and I assume 710s) are fitted with.
The tube, however, presumably has a completely different set of safety regulations to mainline stock.
 
hexagon789

hexagon789

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Saw a 9-car on test at York earlier today. As the first time I've seen one 'properly' they looked pretty good actually.
 
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Bletchleyite

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samuelmorris said:
As you'd expect, they are padded. It'll be interesting to see what the new Tube stock get fitted with, given the atrocities that the 345s (and I assume 710s) are fitted with.
The tube, however, presumably has a completely different set of safety regulations to mainline stock.
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The Met (S-stock) seats appear to be airbags of some kind - quite unusual.
 
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