Items in uk.railway

Subject:Re: SRA announce ECML bidders
Date:Tue, 11 May 2004 15:12:02 +0000 (UTC)
From:Ian G Batten <I.G.Batten@batten.eu.org>
Newsgroups:uk.railway,free.uk.scotland.transport-railways,scot.general
In article <c7qpvv$47sr$1@central.aber.ac.uk>,
ANDREW ROBERT BREEN <azb@aber.ac.uk> wrote:
> Hmm. The ones I was on (TGV-Duplex going out, TGV-R coming back)
> had few table seats - most were airline-style, and very comfortable
> too, iffy alignment of seats with windows (even in 1st), no

What's the obsession with seat alignment?  If I'm planning to work or
read on a train, I aim for a seat without a window aligned with it.  I
find the flicker of the lineside scenery, especially under OLE,
incredibly distracting.  It's out of focus (as my glasses don't wrap
around) but the movement is still enough to keep dragging my attention
to the side.  Horrid.  I can still see out by looking ahead (or behind:
I usually sit opposite to the direction of travel) or to the other
side.  And if I'm in a laptop mood, the window is just glare on the
screen.

I've now done >100 mile journeys on Voyager (Birmingham--Reading and
return), Super Voyager (Birmingham--Edinburgh and return) and Pendolino
(London-Birmingham, but in weekend first).  They all had nice seats, ran
to time, and accelerated impressively.  Just because it renders a whole
generation of Ian Allan books obsolete is not sufficient reason to
scrap something that is delivering effective service.

ian