Extra seats but still no room to sit on train
22 March 2011
Fuming: Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt was unhappy with operator South West Trains after it admitted that 59 per cent of passengers would not fit it the seats on Class 450 trains
LONDON (Reuters) - A rail company has tried to tackle the problem of overcrowding on its trains by making its seats so narrow that more than half of passengers cannot fit into them while many are left in pain, an MP said.
Penny Mordaunt, Conservative MP for Portsmouth North, told parliament that commuters traveling on South West Trains between London and Portsmouth had to squeeze into hard seats measuring 43 cm (17 inches) with no arm rests or spaces between them. "It seems that South West Trains expects its passengers not only not to work while traveling in standard class but not to have elbows either," she said, adding that the cramped conditions had forced some passengers to seek medical attention.
A report commissioned by South West Trains found 59 percent of passengers could not fit into the seats on its class-450 carriages when their elbows were taken into account. "The fact that spaces for people to sit are provided does not mean that people have space to sit down," Mordaunt said. She said seats on South West Trains were so narrow that when she attempted to squeeze three colleagues into the space allocated by the train provider, one would have been 90 percent in the aisle.
A spokeswoman for Stagecoach, which owns South West Trains, defended the seats, saying they were "ergonomically sound" and complied with legislation. "Our customer feedback shows that getting a seat is high on the list of priorities for our passengers -- these trains, when run as 12 cars, provide 142 additional seats per journey compared to a 10-car Class 444 train," the spokeswoman added.
(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Steve Addison)
Source: Reuters.
22 March 2011
Fuming: Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt was unhappy with operator South West Trains after it admitted that 59 per cent of passengers would not fit it the seats on Class 450 trains
LONDON (Reuters) - A rail company has tried to tackle the problem of overcrowding on its trains by making its seats so narrow that more than half of passengers cannot fit into them while many are left in pain, an MP said.
Penny Mordaunt, Conservative MP for Portsmouth North, told parliament that commuters traveling on South West Trains between London and Portsmouth had to squeeze into hard seats measuring 43 cm (17 inches) with no arm rests or spaces between them. "It seems that South West Trains expects its passengers not only not to work while traveling in standard class but not to have elbows either," she said, adding that the cramped conditions had forced some passengers to seek medical attention.
A report commissioned by South West Trains found 59 percent of passengers could not fit into the seats on its class-450 carriages when their elbows were taken into account. "The fact that spaces for people to sit are provided does not mean that people have space to sit down," Mordaunt said. She said seats on South West Trains were so narrow that when she attempted to squeeze three colleagues into the space allocated by the train provider, one would have been 90 percent in the aisle.
A spokeswoman for Stagecoach, which owns South West Trains, defended the seats, saying they were "ergonomically sound" and complied with legislation. "Our customer feedback shows that getting a seat is high on the list of priorities for our passengers -- these trains, when run as 12 cars, provide 142 additional seats per journey compared to a 10-car Class 444 train," the spokeswoman added.
(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Steve Addison)
Source: Reuters.
Add your comment
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
