Lack of comfort of new trains?

[Bletchleyite]

Unfortunately they are also exceptionally unreliable, although knowing PKP, I wouldn't neccessarily put that down to being the fault of the trains themselves. PKP is having to substitute a number of them every day, check out the announcements page on their website for replacements.

Perhaps more that they aren't geared up for maintaining a modern electronic train, and are more geared up for old fashioned heavy engineering?

They have another unit called the PESA Dart as well introduced around the same time as a flirt. All I can say is this. How a modern train can feel claustrphboic I have no idea, but this train manages it, it's the worst modern built EMU I have seen, the interior is quite frankly ****. Carriage 4, the conductor one is even worse. there are so many walled off sections of that carriage, and divider walls and big thick obstacles between seats, that it feels totally horrible.

From what I've seen the interior looks rather like that of a Pendolino, but with no high-speed reason for needing a heavyweight structure. I agree, I don't like the look of them - but oddly a Polish friend prefers them to the FLIRTs, though that might be a combination of the exterior look being a bit slicker and it being a Polish product.

The number of sub-brands of their services is silly too

I can see the point in what they are doing there. Poland has a huge disparity of wealth from richest to poorest compared with the UK, so the "product classes" are probably of more relevance.

TLK for instance was introduced as a budget service so people could afford to travel. It used to stand for "our cheap trains", though I think it's now something else. In some ways a modern day equivalent of the Parliamentary (in its original meaning, not the modern meaning of avoiding line closures).

As a company they have certainly improved but there is still weirdness there such as silly track/platform numbers (like 202/304)

That's a European style thing where tracks are numbered, and it does have signalling related logic. Plenty of that in Switzerland and Germany too.

a truly shocking online ticket buying service

It is a bit clunky, but offers (rudimentary) seat selection and ticket changes on e-tickets, which is more than you can say for many UK TOCs!

an English language website which is hopelessly out of date compared to the Polish - I'd go as far as saying a Google Translate version of the Polish is VASTLY better than the actual English.

When a UK TOC has a decent Polish website I think you'll have a point

 

[JonasB]

I went on one of the new local trains they have in the south of Sweden yesterday and I thought it looked stunning from the outside in the blue livery. Well, it looked new. But I was very surprised to see all seats being tip-up seats! And therefore uncomfortable. What's the point of that?

Faster and easier to clean? The Pågatågs (the blue ones) are intended for shorter journeys, and in my my opinion the seats are not that bad for a 20-30 min trip. If you want more comfort there are both Öresundståg and SJ to choose from.

 

[Johnny_w]

I agree with the OP. I've reached a point at 42 that I'm happy to pay for comfort.

First class on advances whenever possible. Or weekend first upgrades.

Standard class is uncomfortable to the point that I'll drive rather than take the train.

I know, and understand, that modern railways *have* to be volume rather than comfort. But it's a shame none the less.

JW

 

[radamfi]

If you want more comfort there are both Öresundståg and SJ to choose from.

I also went on Öresundståg and that was very comfortable indeed.

 

[Senex]

Standard class is uncomfortable to the point that I'll drive rather than take the train.

So true -- most modern cars are far more comfortable than standard class in modern trains (and offer a much better view out of the window).