New train seats are like Holden bench seats
Thank you for your nice eulogy for the V-set trains (PN June 30).
They will be missed.
Nevertheless they were showing their age, and their toilets were not accessible for disabled passengers.
Given the high regard in which these trains were held, they needed a worthy successor.
In your article, our local State Member, Ms Liesl Tesch, has ticked all the right boxes with the new D (Mariyung) sets, with one very significant exception: the seats.
Those non-reversible sets with the flip-down tray tables are widespread on UK trains now, and it's likely that the D-set seats were just copied from that.
That's despite feedback that this type of seating would not be popular with NSW passengers.
A survey of South Coast passengers showed that 88 per cent were opposed to non-reversible seats.
And the flip-down trays? That's because many UK trains have onboard catering even on short trips as it brings in revenue for the train operators.
This has never happened on our interurban trains and there it little demand for it.
From observation most people here are not using them.
Dutch trains got rid of their flip-down trays as they saw little use and they can sometimes be a nuisance.
NSW adopted US-style passenger carriages and seating from 1879 with the first end-platform cars with reversible seats (a US invention) as they suited our climate and operating conditions.
And that continues to the present day with the newest Waratah suburban trains.
Tourists and visiting students think that these reversible seats are "brilliant".
The failure to provide reversible seats in the D-sets is like ordering a Rolls Royce and having it fitted with Holden bench seats.
I have already heard negative feedback from Coast locals about these seats.
Still, it seems that Transport for NSW may have learnt its lesson as the new Regional Fleet trains (replacing the XPTs) will have Japanese Bullet Train style reversible seats fitted.
Meanwhile, we will be putting up with the D-sets' seats for quite a while to come.
SOURCE:
Email, 2 Jul 2025
Bruce Stafford, Tascott