I'll be honest, I hated 150s with a burning passion. But after riding an LNER Azuma for the first time, the 150s feel like First Class on a 225! Let me tell you why I hate them so much and how they can be improved:
1) Seat comfort - a very obvious one, but still a factor nonetheless. Absolutely minimal padding, odd shape and the fact that they are wide makes walking down the carriage feel very claustrophobic and tight. Instead, refurbish them to include the seats on Lumo's 805s.
2) Lighting - to put it simply, it is far too bright. Reduce the lighting to what its like on the Lumo 805s.
3) Accessibility - an issue across all IETs, why is there such a massive step (or rather two) from the platform to the train and vice versa? Not much you can do to be honest, so well done Hitachi.
4) Ride quality - another issue across all IETs, how is the ride quality so bad a water bottle is able to fly off the edge of the table? HSTs and 225s and even 397s (to an extent) do not have this problem!
5) Charging - why on earth are the charging points located UNDER the seats???? Anytime I want to plug in a charger, I look like an absolute clown because I have to physically kneel down and reach the charging point as I can't find it from my seat. Absolutely awful design! I don't mean to keep coming back to Lumo, but do what they're doing and have the charging points in front of you! It's ironic they're a budget operator yet can still provide a much better service than ordinary TOCs...
6) window alignment - it's not only IETs that suffer from this, but it is still a ridiculous issue. I get you want to cram on as many seats as possible, but to me, InterCity trains should have a little more focus on comfort.
7) Bike storage - Why are the spaces so small? And so few of them too? They should've used part of a carriage to accommodate bikes (just like on the 397s). Not difficult to implement!
Long story short, don't let Hitachi make any more InterCity trains for the UK. I'd rather CAF make them.
1) Seat comfort - a very obvious one, but still a factor nonetheless. Absolutely minimal padding, odd shape and the fact that they are wide makes walking down the carriage feel very claustrophobic and tight. Instead, refurbish them to include the seats on Lumo's 805s.
2) Lighting - to put it simply, it is far too bright. Reduce the lighting to what its like on the Lumo 805s.
3) Accessibility - an issue across all IETs, why is there such a massive step (or rather two) from the platform to the train and vice versa? Not much you can do to be honest, so well done Hitachi.
4) Ride quality - another issue across all IETs, how is the ride quality so bad a water bottle is able to fly off the edge of the table? HSTs and 225s and even 397s (to an extent) do not have this problem!
5) Charging - why on earth are the charging points located UNDER the seats???? Anytime I want to plug in a charger, I look like an absolute clown because I have to physically kneel down and reach the charging point as I can't find it from my seat. Absolutely awful design! I don't mean to keep coming back to Lumo, but do what they're doing and have the charging points in front of you! It's ironic they're a budget operator yet can still provide a much better service than ordinary TOCs...
6) window alignment - it's not only IETs that suffer from this, but it is still a ridiculous issue. I get you want to cram on as many seats as possible, but to me, InterCity trains should have a little more focus on comfort.
7) Bike storage - Why are the spaces so small? And so few of them too? They should've used part of a carriage to accommodate bikes (just like on the 397s). Not difficult to implement!
Long story short, don't let Hitachi make any more InterCity trains for the UK. I'd rather CAF make them.
