A bit of tongue in cheek here before the IT get out their guns to try and shoot me down. Anyway reading about the further troubles with the Caledonian sleeper stock and software issues on other modern stock, makes me wonder if our desire for stock with all singing all dancing fitments is really progression. Cant ever remember MK1's been taken out of service with stiff hinges on doors, or sticking windows for ventilation. Likewise Buckeye couplers rarely refused to talk to each other. Toilets invariably worked and we got to our destination. We had newspapers, books and enjoyed the view outside, so no complaints about WIFI not working. We didnt need quiet coaches as the person opposite was not on the phone, watching a movie or listening to music without headphones.
Lock & load.....
Seriously though, imagine for a minute if anyone had said the same thing 30 or 40 years ago about airliners? There are good reasons for these progressions, but unfortunately there is always going to be a period of testing / learning. In the skies it is quite easy to simulate normal operation, find a bit with no traffic, stick a load of staff / volunteers on, try it out. On Britain's tracks there is little to no capacity for this kind of out-of-service testing, so there will always be a period of snagging.
And forgive me for saying this, but the rose-tinted view of the "simpler" past stock probably ignores all the kinds of problems they had too. I remember the introduction of the 141s, beset with issues and snags, and as
@TRAX says units that were brilliantly too warm in summer, blumming freezing in winter, and with brilliant "simple" features like doors that never really closed properly, great for when being on one, squeezed against said doors when packed and bouncing up out of Bradford on the way to Leeds.
<nostalgic sigh>
And APT anyone? Imagine if after that BR & the government had given up and gone home? We'd still be riding around in ancient MKI based stock, slowly rattling themselves apart. Some enthusiasts might love the nostalgia, but the regular punters would be diving into their cars at such a rate that the inevitable cuts would have made Beeching's cuts look like something off of Blue Peter. The long term gains for the upgrades we are seeing might cause a few problems at the start, but they will help deliver a system fit for the 21st century as opposed to the 19th.
I could go on, but it is easy to remember in this ever online society, that today's problems might seem much more worse with all the talk about them, that doesn't mean that the past was a breeze in comparison. Because it most certainly wasn't!
Well, you did ask.....
