please empty your brain below
They are slowly getting less pleasant to travel on. The North London Line (Overground) now has hard longitudinal seating.
The District Line is getting less seats and more standing. The seats are also firmer, not so comfortable.
Later this year South West trains, who also run services through Richmond, are being replaced by First Group and MTR who promise new trains, will they also have less seats and more standing I wonder. Just hope they are not longitudinal.
The entire Greater Anglia train fleet is set to be replaced with new trains in the next few years, followed by the entire South West Trains surburban fleet.
They never seemed to be going anywhere in a rush-"let's now go to Turnham Green, shall we? Dohdee, dohdee, doh". So anyone in a hurry would get off at Acton Town and join the crush on the Piccadilly.
The S stock is ugly but so much better to travel on, especially at non-peak times and in bad weather when you can get on and walk to the part of the train you want to be. I like the firmness of the seats.
I don't see the point of the "farewell rides" unless they take you somewhere that you can't get to with regular services. I've ridden on these trains enough (and had whole carriages to myself plenty of times), paying what is already to me an extortionate fare.
It's a shame that she's slowly being eradicated from the Tube. She used to have the monopoly. I know there were some politics involved but I'm sure there was no harm intended!
http://emmaclarke.com/voiceover-demos/london-underground/
yes they can, if the driver has signed for the route beyond Barking
@Adrian
No they won't - they wouldn't fit in the tunnel at Ryde. (The floor had to be raised to keep the electric rails above the level of the frequent floods, so only deep tube-sized stock now fits)
Thirty two years later the same fiasco happened with the Boris Buses (aka Roastmasters) and they had to have opening windows fitted. The lessons of history are not learned !
@ John
Seems it's always a case of Improvement Means Worse. The original D78 stock (introduced in 1980 IIRC) looked superb with its autumnal moquette, grooved wood floors and warm white lighting. The 'stormcloud' makeover in 2007 with harder seats and cold white lighting was quite depressing, and the withdrawal of passenger operated door buttons made them physically colder as well. So as least the S stock looks better, even if it's not particularly comfortable and has few seats.
The painted concrete longitudinal seats on the ELL Overground are the worst. They're obviously designed to make standing seem not so bad.
I am fairly sure the buttons didn't work or were permanently switched out. So removing a functionless button didn't make the trains physically colder.
I have to disagree. The D78's illuminated PoD buttons did work, at least in their earlier years, so most doors remained closed at lightly used stations and the cars remained warm. They were worthwhile although they would have been far better if there had also been a Close button or, better still, automatic closing. The buttons weren't very blind friendly, a domed design would have allowed them to be located by touch.
It was yet another case of history repeating itself: the Central Line TS once had PoD buttons which also ended up out of service.
More tip-up seats? And longitudinal seats don't necessarily have to be uncomfortable. The Bakerloo's 38TS seats had a different profile (you sat in them rather than on them) and were far more comfortable.
The D stock only really came into its own when out in the sunshine, but was a total pain when it's busy in the centre.
Thanks again.
But will we really miss it? I think not.
dg writes: They did, for £50, in 2 weeks time.
I preferred D Stock before the refurb. The 70s moquette and traditional wooden floor suited the trains and at least the seats and arm rests were comfortable. While I completely understand the need to crush more people inside trains I do think the unyielding nature of modern seats and arm rests are a dreadful mistake. They are appalling for those of us of "larger" proportions.
Nostalgic as I may be for the 1938 vintage, they were a dog to maintain, with interiors finished in hand brush-applied gloss paint that got easily graffitied, and varnished wood floors that got worn to matted black within a week of use. I also think that the cleaning was much less frequent back then, what with smoking carriages too. They used to mark the bottom left of the cab front with the month and year of the last re-paint, and regular users could tell the destination of an approaching train from the pattern of the 6 lights on the front long before the destination plate was close enough to read.
The D Stock represented quite a step-change with wipe-clean interior surfaces, and the cheery orange colour scheme replacing (what at the time felt like) the gloomy green & white, that had been the norm since the 1920's.
All trains have their particular character - the S stock has a deep rumbling noise on the rails that the two predecessors didn't. One day in the 2060's, they'll miss that.
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