Eurostar seats

[GWVillager]

I was on a Class 373 recently and was struck by just how comfortable and soft the seats were for a modern design (this was Standard class, I presume the situation is similar in Premier). I don't recognise them, and can find no usage of them in any other trains worldwide. They were installed as part of Pininfarina's interior design, and appear to have been designed by Pininfarina themselves (at least Eurostar seemed to think so on Twitter). I contacted Pininfarina but they gave me no response. So, my questions are:

• What are the seats and what is the product name?
• Do they meet EN 45545-2 fire safety regulations?
• Could they theoretically be purchased for other trains?

 

[Pumbaa]

1. Can’t remember.
2. No, but with a copious amount of paperwork could be demonstrated to substantially meet the intent of the requirements.
3. Yes…. But. The seat support design is highly customised for the e300. The seat for the e320 was the original and backworked as I understand it. The design to retrofit the original 373s allowed the product you see today, but difficult to replicate in other GB loading gauge requirements with different ducting, guide rails and fixing arrangements.

To inform the above, as part of a recent (well, recent before Covid!) franchise bid explored fitting a derivative product on a heavy refurbishment scheme. The product was too heavy, too customised and too space inefficient to make it off the long list. The combination of extensive redesign required, copious amounts of engineering time and pure supply chain practicalities meant it would never stack up against other products already available that could do the job.

(For what it’s worth, the seats they were intended to replace are still in use today, recovered).

 

[GWVillager]

1. Can’t remember.
2. No, but with a copious amount of paperwork could be demonstrated to substantially meet the intent of the requirements.
3. Yes…. But. The seat support design is highly customised for the e300. The seat for the e320 was the original and backworked as I understand it. The design to retrofit the original 373s allowed the product you see today, but difficult to replicate in other GB loading gauge requirements with different ducting, guide rails and fixing arrangements.

To inform the above, as part of a recent (well, recent before Covid!) franchise bid explored fitting a derivative product on a heavy refurbishment scheme. The product was too heavy, too customised and too space inefficient to make it off the long list. The combination of extensive redesign required, copious amounts of engineering time and pure supply chain practicalities meant it never made it off the long list.

(For what it’s worth, the seats they were intended to replace are still in use today, recovered).

Thank you very much, so the short answer is they couldn’t be used again? That does seem a shame.