fgwrich
Established Member
The staff refer to them as the plastics.
The build quality is terrible. There has been fault after fault after fault and not all public. Some minor, some major. But we may end up with the newer verison tho I believe this is being dreaded.
This and other reasons, are why i can not stand the entire Electrostar and
Turdostar Fleets...
There build quility has always felt cheap and of a poor standards, as has the interior designs...Especially when compared to the track crusifying Desiros - which by the way, have a far lighter and brighter interior, that dosent feel claustrophobic and unclean...
357 : The Interior is pretty poor, with a rather irritating mixture of 3&2 seating with those horrid plastic chapman seating.
375: Interior wise wasnt too bad when they were new, but 10 years - or in most cases, less than 10 years, has worn there interior down horribly with most running around with stained carpets, interior panneling, seating etc etc...
And that Bin in the vestuble has always come across as quite a after thaught... a sort of we to include it in the designs, to were else can we stick it...
376: Not as bad as the rest of the family, but only becasue they are used on shorter stopping routes...But still have that horrible Bombardier carpet feel pannels under the window frames which are pretty prone to staining - note, these seem to be found across all the electrostar fleets minus the 378s
377: Started out exactly the same as the 375s, but now come in various forms with the fleet largley split between 3+2 & 2+2 seated units, even with the original type seating, thanks to the wonderful astro turf seating they are not a plesure to ride upon as they used to be. Again, despite southers replacement flooring, the carpets are pretty poor as can some of the interior panels, again prone to staining...
378: OH DEAR...
Not going to say much about these becasue they may be brand new, but new dosent nessasarily mean its good...which buy the way there not... The seating layout is pretty questionable as is the tube style seats provided, meaning if you want to lean back whilst sitting down, your headbutting a window, aswell as facing the people opposite...
Definatly not the best thought out of trains over the last decade...
379: As Above...Oh Dear...
Thinking logically, there could be absolutly no need for ordering these, if sense prevailed! Ideal replacement for the Stansted Express would be the Ex Gatwick Junipers - Already 8 Car, Only change required to the timetable would be to change it to every 20 minutes - but thats not much of a difference and would allow 2 sets to be out of service for maintenance...
Oh dear, better not mention anymore logical ideas...remember the old saying of 'railway logic'?
Anyhow, these are of course my opions, which most people of course have there own...
And despite typing out all of the above, to a degree i do agree with TDKs post...though im more commenting on how they have faired aswell as aspects of their design...
Bringing my post to close, whilst i prefer the desiro family over the electrostars and junipers, i personnaly belive the best of all EMUs for build quility, ride quility and design has to go to CAF for the 332/333 Fleets...