New-build stock with compartments

[yorksrob]

never going to happen

It wouldn't bother me, but then I don't particularly like compartments anyway. I've only ever used them on heritage railways and even then I wasn't really keen.

I don't like the forced intimacy of being shoved in a tiny area with five complete strangers. All well and good if you've got one to yourself, but the prospect of being stuck in the middle seat of three between two boozed up 18 stone blokes with BO straight off the rigs doesn't appeal much.

I can see the appeal being very limited to those who:

1) Could afford the premium for first class
2) Didn't mind sharing with strangers
3) Didn't need a table to working on
4) Didn't have a disability/mobility issue.

I can't see it having mass appeal.

I did tend to find that once I'd claimed the compartment, in most cases I would be left to myself. Similarly, if I saw that the compartment was occupied, I would leave them to it.

I think I benefitted from a lot of people assuming that all compo's were first class, which they weren't.

 

[MarkyT]

This below are the type of seats I would have in the compartments of my trains .
http://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/dscn3346.jpg

Shinkansen E5 series Gran Class.
https://youtu.be/1wWmtB_vAcY
The flexible stalk things are reading lights. Window alignment looks good. Not campartments though!

 

[Ash Bridge]

Anyone got a picture of a Mk 2 BFK compartment? Would be interesting to see.

If you have ever seen (or own a copy of) the 1971 Movie "Get Carter" the intro scenes feature Michael Caine travelling in one on an east coast express service, although this would be an earlier non aircon version the trim was essentially the same as the later 2d version.

 

[Rail Blues]

I did tend to find that once I'd claimed the compartment, in most cases I would be left to myself. Similarly, if I saw that the compartment was occupied, I would leave them to it.

I think I benefitted from a lot of people assuming that all compo's were first class, which they weren't.

Ideally yes you'd leave people alone, but with overcrowding on many routes, that may not be feasible. That was probably more doable in the past, but with rising passenger numbers and desperate need to increase capacity, it feels like an idea from another era.

 

[ashworth]

Given how awful mobile reception is on some stock, I can just imagine how effective a Faraday cage a modern built compartment would be.

Not to mention the probable 2 wall sockets with 10 seats to a compartment lack of sockets and no doubt dodgy wifi reception.

Imagine being in one of a Turbostar design, but being in the compartment with the half window...

I like the idea of compartments for people with noisy crying children.
Even more I would like to see compartments with good mobile reception for those people who talk loudly on mobile phones for the whole of their journey.

 

[The 4th Rail]

Even more I would like to see compartments with good mobile reception for those people who talk loudly on mobile phones for the whole of their journey.

I'd like to see death camps for those people

 

[Master29]

Your obviously trying to get a reaction but I do agree it can be a pain. I`ve kinda got used to it over the years but you do get the occasional "my life story" - run me through them figures again luv" types who really do wee me off.

To the main point I think it would be a bad idea. Why is there a romanticist view about compartments. I hated them as a kid. Too few window seats. Mk2 carriages onward were much better imo.

 

[cambsy]

I love compartment stock, especially over night as can doss very well, can remember a mk 1 compartment from Birmingham International to Holyhead in the last years of 37 haulage, left about 11.10pm, got in about 2.30am,oh the joy of those days, gets me frothing, once did a rail tour with Pathfinder tours using the Pilkington mk 1 set, where one could choose how many in a compartment, could have less for more comfort, was the Skirl Of The Pipes Revisited.

 

[BR60062]

Shinkansen E5 series Gran Class.
https://youtu.be/1wWmtB_vAcY
The flexible stalk things are reading lights. Window alignment looks good. Not campartments though!

I would have those seats IN the compartments of my trains as business users could have total privacy then .

 

[Mikey C]

If I operated a TOC. I would have compartments for first class passengers with the sliding door operated by the LCD screen like you get on the Emirates Airlines and full British hand-stitched leather seats with recline and massage facility. Business class for those that want a bit of luxury such as reclining seats with 50/50 leather and alcantara (ex-current First Class) and standard class which would be as current with all TOC's. I would operate my trains similar to an airline .

This below are the type of seats I would have in the compartments of my trains .
http://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/dscn3346.jpg

Those windows are a bit small, worse than 390s!

 

[fowler9]

Those windows are a bit small, worse than 390s!

At least the seat lines up with the window and has an armrest. Ha ha.

 

[BR60062]

Those windows are a bit small, worse than 390s!

I would have seats in the CAF Mk4 and the windows on those are not small. They are about the same as a Voyager .

 

[class387]

I'd like to see death camps for those people

Agreed. They don't deserve a compartment. Or to be on the train in fact.

 

[randyrippley]

Voyagers and Pendolinos with their tapered sides are claustrophobic enough without adding compartments.
And anyway a side compartment in one of those could never have enough head room to enable passage

 

[fowler9]

Pendolinos with compartments would be like Floor 7 1/2 in Being John Malkovich.

 

[Ianigsy]

About six weeks ago I had an absolutely blissfully journey from Vienna to Katowice in a Polish first class compartment, all to myself the whole way, strong (and that's an understatement) Polish railway coffee and the wheat fields of the eastern Czech Republic passing me by.

There seems to have been a bit of a renaissance in first class compartment building on German and Austrian high speed trains recently- some ICEs have them and the Railjets do too, I think on the basis that business travellers valued the ability to have the additional privacy if travelling to or from a meeting with a group of colleagues.

That said, I used to know somebody who commuted out of Fenchurch Street in steam days- many was the time that a latecomer would leap into a compartment (this being the full width compartment stock that the likes of the KWVR now use) only to find all the seats full and himself in a rather precarious position until somebody got out.

 

[fowler9]

About six weeks ago I had an absolutely blissfully journey from Vienna to Katowice in a Polish first class compartment, all to myself the whole way, strong (and that's an understatement) Polish railway coffee and the wheat fields of the eastern Czech Republic passing me by.

There seems to have been a bit of a renaissance in first class compartment building on German and Austrian high speed trains recently- some ICEs have them and the Railjets do too, I think on the basis that business travellers valued the ability to have the additional privacy if travelling to or from a meeting with a group of colleagues.

That said, I used to know somebody who commuted out of Fenchurch Street in steam days- many was the time that a latecomer would leap into a compartment (this being the full width compartment stock that the likes of the KWVR now use) only to find all the seats full and himself in a rather precarious position until somebody got out.

Oddly enough my last trip in a compartment was from Krakow to Katowice. It was lots of fun and involved very strong coffee.