Pendolino is not fit for purpose.

[ponderman]

Went to Liverpool standard class on pendolino, felt more cramped than a class 375/9 with 2+3 seating, next time I go Liverpool I will go as far as is possible on a LM train and get whatever else to Liverpool.

[Belmont Road]

I agree I have to travel on one next week. I managed to get a 1st class ticket so at least I will be cramped in some style.

[LNER]

I agree, and the voyagers are even wose. I always try to travel Transpenine on the 185s they are much better for seating. Mr Branson did things on the cheap, so we are now left with a legacy for the next 30 years.

[Madcaravanner]

Originally Posted by LNER

I agree, and the voyagers are even wose. I always try to travel Transpenine on the 185s they are much better for seating. Mr Branson did things on the cheap, so we are now left with a legacy for the next 30 years.

The problem is that these trains are not owned or designed by the TOC's they're all leased and designed by faceless ones somewhere abroad

[Belmont Road]

Aircraft on wheels, which was the brain child of Branson I believe. He didn't want anyone with railway experience working on the interior plans.

[Master Cutler]

Built to a budget sums all of this "New" rolling stock, and a tight one at that.
When fibreglass internal carriage modules are subbed out to Bahrain boat builders to meet budgets I think we can begin to understand where some of the problems originate.

[Shimbleshanks]

The Pendos do at least reduce the misery to just over a couple of hours or so.

The irony, though, is that despite their cramped-ness, they contain a lot of wasted space. For a start, there are the huge disabled-accessible toilets. This may be a legal requirement, but does there need to be so many of them? In all my years travelling on the Pendos, I have never once seen anyone in a wheelchair using them. Because of this,there is also a curious little unused lobby area at the entrance to each carriage with a couple of fold-up seats.

And do we really need to create such cramped conditions for all passengers in the name of maximising the number of seats so that everyone can in theory sit down on the busiest trains? Wouldn't it be better to seat most passengers on most trains in some comfort and just accept that a few people will have to stand for half an hour or so on the busiest trains on Friday evenings? Or would that upset the health & safety wonks?

[Shimbleshanks]

Originally Posted by Belmont Road

Aircraft on wheels, which was the brain child of Branson I believe. He didn't want anyone with railway experience working on the interior plans.

If you take an economy class aircraft cabin as your model, no wonder you've got problems.

[Madcaravanner]

Originally Posted by Shimbleshanks

The Pendos do at least reduce the misery to just over a couple of hours or so.

The irony, though, is that despite their cramped-ness, they contain a lot of wasted space. For a start, there are the huge disabled-accessible toilets. This may be a legal requirement, but does there need to be so many of them?

I am not sure of minimum number of W/c access seats but the the number 2 per tain springs to mind as that is all there is on an HST as they had a huge chop job to fit those in when they had to add them due to the vestibules being too small for W/c access generallly

[Mendipman319]

Isn't it a shame the goverment and TOC's dont listen to us railway people not their wallets......