Presumably the seats as specced weren't supposed to degrade to the extent you're sitting on a metal bar after a few years. Yes the seats aren't great in the first place but it seems to me they are also defective.
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Azuma seating
- Thread starter Abc100
- Start date
Presumably the seats as specced weren't supposed to degrade to the extent you're sitting on a metal bar after a few years. Yes the seats aren't great in the first place but it seems to me they are also defective.
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Do we know where else these same seats are fitted, if anywhere, and whether they present the same issues there?
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
All 80x bar Avanti and Lumo plus 397. Yes, same problem.
But aside from Hitachi efforts, any older, previous installations - probably abroad, admittedly - to compare with? Or was it some sort of DfT pennypinching special design?!
dk1
Veteran Member
DfT getting too involved as is the usual problem. Why they don't just hand over the cash and leave it to the experts eludes me. They never seem to learn.
Well, in this instance the aim was purely to save cash, I understand? Down spec the seating so it’s cheaper, plain and simple. But surely if this was an existing design, which I assume it was, there must have been prior applications elsewhere in the world? It’d be interesting to know how those seats have fared, whether the same issues have arisen and what has been done about it, if anything.
They're used on the very short-distance commuter trains in the Netherlands from CAF. Not sure how that is going.
Flying Snail
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Yes it is a standard design from a large European seat manufacturer (who should be ashamed of their s*** product) and are used in a number of countries, typically on commuter/regional stock. Only the UK rail industry has had the utter disdain to their customers to use them on long distance intercity trains.
Haywain
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Corrected that for you.
Australia was going to use them on long-distance trains, but changed their mind. India used them on two units, but quickly realised they were inhumane and has chosen a superior design.
Mikey C
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You'd assume they'd collapse even quicker on a commuter train, with far more turnover of people sitting on them.
ThameslinkUser
Member
Sitting on them for less time = more “recovery” time for the seats themselves?
Mikey C
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Fortunately just a short journey tonight, as the seat on my GWR IET (800015) was awful, it was like sitting on a metal bar as there was no padding above it.
I travel between Peterborough and Edinburgh regularly. Yesterday's journey was the final straw for me heading south. The service was packed and gave little option for moving seat and by Newcastle I made my mind up that next time I'm flying up. The deterioration in the seat bases seems to have become markedly worse recently, frankly I couldn't wait to get off. The seat in the the waiting room at Peterborough was a blessed relief to sit on. I work in rail myself and so find it hard to believe that I'll be actively avoiding the journey. Time and cost wise I can't really consider the WCML option.
Would the Lumo service be an option?
The problem is that we can't all cram onto Lumo services. Somebody's going to end up having to get the plane, so it might as well be the people with the easiest journey to Stansted
I would say make sure you put your complaint direct to LNER as well and tell them this, they need to understand that it is actually pushing people away from their services.
If it stopped at Peterborough then yes, however it doesn't. I connect off the GA service from Ipswich.
I know what you mean. When i arrive in London i find the seats on most Underground trains to be more comfortable than the 80x.
I have told LNER many times that sicne the 800`s came in I have driven rather than drive on numerous occasions, entirely due to the awful seats.
Good, just need loads and loads to do the same so they get the message.
43096
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I would do, but almost all of my trips on the East Coast since the Hitachi junk came in have been on the Leeds run, so I have been deliberately booking on Mark 4 diagrammed services!
Well, I had a new and somewhat irritating design feature on GWR the other night. Same metal bar issue, but now something was loose and rattling in the seat back in front of me. So my journey was spent with some rather annoying tinny rattling sound shaking and vibrating at any given (and often very repeatedly) moment. These seats really are cr*p.
TreacleMiller
Member
So, who are you telling?
Because if you want to be known, don't just mention it to on board staff. We know.
DelW
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I agree that GWR's class 800 seats are equally dreadful.
I regularly travel between west Wales and the home counties, and in the days of HSTs and initially the cl800s, I almost always did so by train. It was preferable to four hours on the M4, or five to six hours on the pleasanter but slower A40. But after some very uncomfortable trips - not just from the collapsed seat bases, but also from the occasional violent lateral shaking - I've switched to taking the car every time instead. That has comfortable seats, and it doesn't try to throw me off them sideways every now and then either. It means I can't read while in transit, but on the plus side, I can listen to my choice of music from decent speakers rather than someone else's choice on a horribly tinny mobile phone.
But it's the seats that are the real bugbear for me, and it doesn't seem that DfT, or GWR/LNER, or Agility, or Hitachi, are willing to sort them out. Presumably we're lumbered with the existing rubbish until everyone votes with their feet (or wallet) and switches to cars or NatEx or Flixbus?
I regularly travel between west Wales and the home counties, and in the days of HSTs and initially the cl800s, I almost always did so by train. It was preferable to four hours on the M4, or five to six hours on the pleasanter but slower A40. But after some very uncomfortable trips - not just from the collapsed seat bases, but also from the occasional violent lateral shaking - I've switched to taking the car every time instead. That has comfortable seats, and it doesn't try to throw me off them sideways every now and then either. It means I can't read while in transit, but on the plus side, I can listen to my choice of music from decent speakers rather than someone else's choice on a horribly tinny mobile phone.
But it's the seats that are the real bugbear for me, and it doesn't seem that DfT, or GWR/LNER, or Agility, or Hitachi, are willing to sort them out. Presumably we're lumbered with the existing rubbish until everyone votes with their feet (or wallet) and switches to cars or NatEx or Flixbus?
LNER have sent me several surveys and wherever possible I lay it on thick
A recent survey invited opinions of the on board facilities which seemed the perfect opportunity to make feelings known which i certainly did.
dk1
Veteran Member
That’s just never going to happen and regardless of seat type the trains will be as busy as ever.
DelW
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I suspect that even if it ever did, the DfT (or at least the Treasury) would be quite happy about it. Their mindset seems to me to be:
People on trains = subsidy needed = a Bad Thing
People in cars = fuel tax and car tax revenues = a Good Thing
DanNCL
Established Member
People clearly are voting with their feet to some extent as the airlines are all upping their capacity to Newcastle and (particularly) Edinburgh whilst cutting it elsewhere. The trains might still be full now but if the fares stay as high as they are and comfort (and reliability) remains poor, more and more people will give up on LNER. Remember a lot more of the travel now is discretionary compared to five years ago, which means it’ll take a lot less for people to give up on the train now than it did then.
dk1
Veteran Member
I’ll believe it when I see it. Train capacity keeps increasing too with more planned in the future.