Given the shambles that is EMR out of St Pancras right now, where the reservations are down because they don't know what trains to schedule for, perhaps XC should be congratulated for making a reasonable decision
It's interesting that Westbahn actually sell that layout as an upgrade for just under €10 on the train. Seems cheeky to me as the only thing you actually get is a guaranteed table, you don't get any extra legroom or elbow space. You may have more comfort or ability to use the table space but that's pretty much no difference to their second class, as you only get personal space if the carriage is quiet. Real first in the conventional lower density layout is also offered for just under €35 upgrade which is more reasonable.
Given the number of people you see making a beeline for bay of four seats with table, even when they are not in a group of 3 or 4, I’’m not surprised there’s a market for a supplement.
The rows where seats are back to back on nearly all modern trains have the seats touching. With many seats so thin now this leaves barely any room. On say a 331 there's no more space between the seat backs than there is under the seat in front of you. So it's probably not a surprise almost nobody uses the spaces.
They did when it was normal to expect the space to exist. Now it is so rare as not to be worth looking for. As for putting bags in the footspace, that is one of my pet hates - especially at table seats. At 6'6" and size 14 feet, that is just anti-social - as are airline seats.
And I hate having my knees compressed by the seat in front! Which is an increasing risk as capacity gets prioritised over comfort and space.
They sold it as first class on some trains for a while. That's why it was reconfigured to be a "hybrid" coach, so they could do food service in it on the early morning Holyhead to Eustons when they stopped the Pendolino drags.
Isn't a proposed "third class" one of the reasons that Voyagers have no space-saver toilets on board and instead have three large ones? I'm sure I recall a "Virgin Value" idea from back in the mists of time.
Replacing one (or two, if you go down the TPE route of putting all wheelchair space in first class and automatically upgrading standard tickets) of the toilets with a space-saver would have been a smart move as part of the mid-life refurb the units are getting. You'd have a few extra luggage stacks at least.
can XC do anything forward-looking, or is it just a "dead man walking?" If it can't (or won't) address the immediate issue of the waste of fuel and space of locked-out units on overcrowded trains, what on earth is the point of it spending management time on bidding for additional units it won't even be able to staff? I suppose the current contract rewards the company for "managing" things even if it doesn't bother transporting people, so it will provide a shareholder return and director bonuses for a different activity.
I would place ultimate responsibility for this on the transport minister and by extension the government of the day. They would have been responsible for the continuation of the general policy of effectively squeezing passengers off of XC by price and overcrowding rather than supplying adequate rolling stock. The HST withdrawal was part of this penny-pinching policy.
Except on every other TOC and on CrossCountry until last year...
This presumes that XC had enough people available to roster 2 guards on one train without cancelling anything else.
Even if XC could swap these ex Avanti 221s with same number of 220s that would be still an increase in capacity less 4 car 220s around but wouldn't cost a lot or need more traincrew.
It's "continued" for so many years so far, I guess actually it can.
I would expect it to continue as long as the Whitehall Fat- and not-so-fat-Controllers are insulated from any personal discomfort. If it had been a TOC serving a London route you can be sure it would be different.
The seat Avanti & Lumo are using are comfortable with a thin back, so would be a good choice for a high-density voyager.
