Sorry if this is in the wrong place, and also sorry if it degenerates into a rant.
Having become thoroughly fed up of 455s during the hot weather, I'm interested in knowing why they were built without air conditioning. Wikipedia (I know, sorry again) states that it's because "they were designed for inner suburban services" but that hardly answers the question - you can spend an hour on one of those things, much of it spent standing up during the evening peak, in truly horrible conditions.
I'm just a bit baffled. Somebody somewhere must have said, during the design phase of these appalling contraptions, "Shall we install aircon?" and someone else must have said "No need, it'll be fine". I disagree that it's fine! I'm far from convinced that it's safe.
So I realise that 30-odd years on much will have been lost to antiquity, but can anybody shed light on the reasoning?
And are we still building trains without aircon?
Having become thoroughly fed up of 455s during the hot weather, I'm interested in knowing why they were built without air conditioning. Wikipedia (I know, sorry again) states that it's because "they were designed for inner suburban services" but that hardly answers the question - you can spend an hour on one of those things, much of it spent standing up during the evening peak, in truly horrible conditions.
I'm just a bit baffled. Somebody somewhere must have said, during the design phase of these appalling contraptions, "Shall we install aircon?" and someone else must have said "No need, it'll be fine". I disagree that it's fine! I'm far from convinced that it's safe.
So I realise that 30-odd years on much will have been lost to antiquity, but can anybody shed light on the reasoning?
And are we still building trains without aircon?