fairysdad
Member
So I've finally managed to travel on one of these - my usual commute from Ewell West to Waterloo has been on them the past couple of days, so here are some thoughts from me (some - if not most - are probably repeated elsewhere!)
- Seats/Comfort: I must admit, I was surprised at how comfortable the seats actually are. Unfortunately as a fat man, they are quite narrow, and if you're in the window seat there is that annoying leg room. The 'table' seats are okay, but again, leg space is a bit short if you've got somebody sitting opposite you. The space in the airline seats is misleadingly good - they look as if they're quite close together but there's a good amount of space there, although I'd like to have seen some priority seats in the regular carriages with some wider spacing as on the 455s.
- Speed: Like the proverbial s**t off a shovel!
- PIS: Jittery scrolling text is a bit harsh on my eyes so I hope this is fixed! (The 455s' scrolling text wasn't immune to my wrath either btw, with their odd reverse italic text!) The panels by the door seem a bit of a wasted opportunity thus far; too much branding not enough information. Also, a very odd emphasis when announcing the change for East [small]Croydon[/small] at Clapham Junction!
- PIS pt 2: Doing this one separately... an odd thing that I noticed when the automated announcement started which was interrupted by the Guard doing their one - the automated one was still audible underneath the Guard's one, albeit at a ducked level. Was kinda weird. (Not to mention that the Guard's one was unintelligible, but that's more to do with their microphone technique rather than the system itself - SWR need to give their Guards some basic microphone training!)
- Toilets: I haven't used the toilets on the trains myself, but overheard a comment from a fellow passenger who noted that "the toilets were alright, but [they] could only find the disabled ones not the normal ones so had to use one of those instead." I guess the idea of the toilets being available for everybody was missed on this person!
- Aircon: Lovely. Not as cool as I'd set it, but as has been noted elsewhere in this thread, that's more a setting somewhere than a fault with the system.
- Noises: Miss the squeak of the 707s, 450s, and 444s as they pull away. Something nostalgic about that sound for me. There was also an odd noise that came in half way through Thursday's journey home which seemed to be linked to the brakes; sounded like an electrical hum noise with two tones depending on what brake application was on. Didn't hear it yesterday at all though so whatever.
- Doors: Finally... I miss not being able to hold down the open button until the doors are released for them to open. Instead just a red ring around the button lights up in what seemed to be a somewhat unfriendly manner. Ah well, something different to have to get used to.
Overall, not a bad unit. Still going to miss the 455s once they are fully taken out of service though - admittedly, not in the recent heat (which I know isn't really that bad, but I don't do well in heat anyway!).
- Seats/Comfort: I must admit, I was surprised at how comfortable the seats actually are. Unfortunately as a fat man, they are quite narrow, and if you're in the window seat there is that annoying leg room. The 'table' seats are okay, but again, leg space is a bit short if you've got somebody sitting opposite you. The space in the airline seats is misleadingly good - they look as if they're quite close together but there's a good amount of space there, although I'd like to have seen some priority seats in the regular carriages with some wider spacing as on the 455s.
- Speed: Like the proverbial s**t off a shovel!
- PIS: Jittery scrolling text is a bit harsh on my eyes so I hope this is fixed! (The 455s' scrolling text wasn't immune to my wrath either btw, with their odd reverse italic text!) The panels by the door seem a bit of a wasted opportunity thus far; too much branding not enough information. Also, a very odd emphasis when announcing the change for East [small]Croydon[/small] at Clapham Junction!
- PIS pt 2: Doing this one separately... an odd thing that I noticed when the automated announcement started which was interrupted by the Guard doing their one - the automated one was still audible underneath the Guard's one, albeit at a ducked level. Was kinda weird. (Not to mention that the Guard's one was unintelligible, but that's more to do with their microphone technique rather than the system itself - SWR need to give their Guards some basic microphone training!)
- Toilets: I haven't used the toilets on the trains myself, but overheard a comment from a fellow passenger who noted that "the toilets were alright, but [they] could only find the disabled ones not the normal ones so had to use one of those instead." I guess the idea of the toilets being available for everybody was missed on this person!
- Aircon: Lovely. Not as cool as I'd set it, but as has been noted elsewhere in this thread, that's more a setting somewhere than a fault with the system.
- Noises: Miss the squeak of the 707s, 450s, and 444s as they pull away. Something nostalgic about that sound for me. There was also an odd noise that came in half way through Thursday's journey home which seemed to be linked to the brakes; sounded like an electrical hum noise with two tones depending on what brake application was on. Didn't hear it yesterday at all though so whatever.
- Doors: Finally... I miss not being able to hold down the open button until the doors are released for them to open. Instead just a red ring around the button lights up in what seemed to be a somewhat unfriendly manner. Ah well, something different to have to get used to.
Overall, not a bad unit. Still going to miss the 455s once they are fully taken out of service though - admittedly, not in the recent heat (which I know isn't really that bad, but I don't do well in heat anyway!).
