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Questions & Answers / !!! CLICK HERE TO VIEW MORE TOPICS !!! / Pendolinos Are Appaulling
Author Message
davidhood999
Admin 		# Posted: 25 Oct 2008 17:53

Having recently travelled from London Euston to Glasgow Central on a Virgin Pendolino, I would like to ask visitors if they share the same view as me on these units. I think these trains offer a totally unattractive travelling environment to the customer. Admittedly they do look good from the outside, and the livery suits these trains well. That however, is as far is it goes as when I stepped onto one of these units, their short comings were immediately evident. I found that the over head luggage racks were too shallow even for a medium sized travelling bag, never mind a suitcase, or a backpack which I had. This resulted in around half of people's luggage being placed in the aisles and even as in my case the vestibules. Not very good in case of an emergency or for passenger security I think you will agree. Secondly, I have an issue with the seating to window spacing. You will notice that the pillars in between the windows of a Pendolino are huge. Most of the seating in standard class is airline style, meaning that almost everywhere you sit, you have a great big piece of plastic pillar to look at rather than a window and nice scenery. Far from ideal on a journey of around five hours! Compare this with the B.R. MK3 coach that these units replaced, where almost every seat, airline style or not, had a good window view and luggage storage that was more than adequate. I think the interior design of a Pendolino is ill thought out. It appeared to me that these trains are designed to give an ambience of an aircraft rather than a railway carriage. Hence the excessive use of unidirectional seats to cram as many people in as possible. My point to Virgin Trains is that on long distance journeys, passengers often have a choice of airline or rail travel. If that passenger is on a train, they likely will have chosen that mode of transport over airline travel. Reason being, they don't want to travel on an aeroplane! Considering the amount of tax payers money that was spent on these units I think the interiors could and should have been configured in a more passenger friendly way.
rob3legs
Member 		# Posted: 29 Oct 2008 09:57

Hi,

I have to agree totally here. I also travelled from Euston to Glasgow on one of these. The train was packed most of the way (Despite having the some amount of vehicles as a Mk3 set, they have agreat deal less seats. Unless you travel first class). The luggage provision was certainly inadequate, and the view is definatelly spoiled by the huge pillars inbetween the windows.

I commented to Virgin about this some time ago, and their reply was basically this; Most modern trains are built like this. However, they did concede on the point about the luggage, saying that they were working on a remedy.

Robert Johnson. Basildon.
 

 

 

 

 


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