We've seen phones and laptops get thinner and thinner rather than having better and better battery life, because there are diminishing returns of adding extra battery life. Making a laptop last significantly more than 12 hours isn't particularly useful because the vast majority of people will be in a situation to be able to charge it again within that time. It would be better, from a user's perspective, to be able to charge it back up to full again very quickly rather than having to carry around a heavier device which wouldn't really make their lives any easier. Consider the fact that Apple aim to keep each iPad's battery life 10 hours long, even though they could easily bring out modern versions with much larger batteries which would then only be the size of the original model.
In a similar way, I don't see there being a lot of effort being put into getting electric cars to have ranges significantly beyond what's currently possible in a Tesla Model S, as if you're driving for more than 200 miles at a time you're meant to stop for a rest and that time can be used to rapidly charge the car back up again. Equally there would be no point making an IPEMU with a massively long battery range, as it will be possible in the vast majority of cases to charge at intermediate points.
Adding in power sockets isn't going to cause anyone any harm and if it means people are happier to use the railway, then all the better. There's a clear demand for charging facilities as aircraft and buses are also seeing them fitted, and for some people the ability to keep their devices charged throughout a trip is a deal-breaker. Also, if you make it possible for people to distract themselves (more people would play more immersive games and watch more movies on their phones/tablets if they didn't have to worry about the battery being hammered) they'll be less likely to complain about the railway. Much of the bad rep the Voyagers have is just because people are already quite annoyed about having to sit on the floor due to overcrowding, so they then care about all the other minor things which are also wrong.
Agreed - especially re the bold parts.
I'm amazed that we are arguing about the pennies required to pay for plugs/ chargers on these new trains, but then since we are seeing complains about every other flipping feature of them, I probably shouldn't be surprised
re: Voyagers - my default defence of them is that the significant lack of seats on the XC core mean that people are more likely to notice problems with the reservations, more likely to notice the toilet smell (as they are quite likely to have been standing in the corridor outside the toilets)... if there were sufficient seats than people would't notice these things so much.
It's the "broken window" approach - once people are dissatisfied with one aspect of a train, they are significantly more likely to get annoyed by minor things. Thankfully, IEP seems to have learnt most of the lessons from Voyagers.
Remember that it isn't just commuters that use their laptops, as (especially on long distance journeys like the ones that the class 800's will be running) lots of travelers would rather look at their laptop than out the window. (You can't now go and say they should just be told to look out the window) The fact that people forget to charge their laptops isn't something that can be helped either, and the fact is that mains is the more commonly used (and preferred) method of charging. All these are just plain and simple facts.
Public transport should not tell people what their needs are, they should be designed to fit customer's needs. Yes power points aren't a necessity, but passengers use them. There is not a trend approaching where it is now cool to have a battery pack, and VTEC and GWR and the like don't have time to encourage the use of a certain product, that is just silly. People like and use power points on trains regularly, and since this train is rather basic anyway (our high speed train system will now fall further out of league with the rest of Europe), you would think it is the least they can do?
Agreed.
If I've got a film/programme on a tablet/ laptop to watch then I'm not going to be so fussed about an unobstructed window seat.
There seems to be a fascination with some enthusiasts with telling the general public where they ought to be going and how they ought to be behaving - witness the snooty comments about "people travelling all that way to watch men in shorts kicking a ball around" when there's a thread about the railway's inability to cope with football traffic. Much better to see how people actually want to travel and reflect that demand (which will increasingly mean some electrical charging facilities onboard).
RAGNARØKR;2410549 said:
MODERATOR - there are at least three new threads developing: luggage space, wifi and charging points
It's the same people complaining in each threads, so I wouldn't worry about splitting them out
RAGNARØKR;2410549 said:
Vestibule luggage stacks came about long before that. LMS open stock had them from 1923. Before mark 3 stock came on the scene, large items were meant to be placed with cycles in dedicated and lockable van space under the supervision of the guard; both were meant to be labelled with the destination clearly marked. The luggage racks in compartments were for small items
RAGNARØKR;2410549 said:
The best place for large items of luggage and cycles would be in a dedicated section of the vehicle used by the train conductor. Then all the space in the rest of the train can be used for passenger seating.
It's really not the 1950s any more...
One minute you want more generous seating pitches, the next you want to take out a large chunk of a carriage for a Guard's Van? Good luck squaring your circle...
What is needed is a clear message from IEP operators about suit case sizes, tell passengers what size bag will fit in the overhead rack, what size bag will fit in the luggage stack, and what happens if they bring a walk-on wardrobe with them.
I've been on more than my fair share of trains with baggage everywhere - in the aisles, on seats and tables, jammed into toilets, disabled areas and bits of the buffet, but I can hand on heart say I've never seen one of these trains with every luggage rack and storage space actually fully utilised, quite often luggage racks are empty because people can't get their suitcases into them, a particular issue with Voyager and Pendolino fleets, who have an interior that could only have been designed by the Pinball Wizard.
If people start to carry the correct size of bag or suitcase for the train, there's genuinely not an issue with the amount of luggage space on board most trains in use today, and certainly not with IEP, which is exceptionally generously provisioned in comparison to some trains in operation.
Good point.
If we're going to continue down this ridiculous suggestion of requiring passengers to carry portable battery recharging solutions with them, can I then remove the buffet and catering trolley from vehicles on the basis they should also be bringing their own food, using flasks, etc
Agreed.
Perish the thought that we improve the on-board experience for passengers, when they should clearly all carry the same tech that railway enthusiasts lug around?
What next? Complaints about announcements being made, since the passengers should carry paper timetables with them and use GPS on their phone to know which station will be next?
There's enough of an undercurrent of "the railway is there for the benefit of its staff, rather than for the benefit of the public" on some threads, but this one is running them close!
