Personally I prefer the pre refurb coaches - I find the new ones less comfortable and rather claustrophobic. I appreciate that high seat backs are now a safety standard but the rank upon rank of airline seats makes it a) impossible to see whether a seat is occupied when you board the train and b) severely restricts views out of the window (part of the pleasure of train travel). A few more tables would break up the monotony, open up the views and considerably improve things - one only has to look at the GNER▸ / NXEC▸ refurbished mark IIIs which also incoporate high sea backs (though they seem at first glance to have got away with rather shorter ones than FGW▸ ) to see what can be achieved with a bit of thought and proper design. Its a sad state of affairs when Southern region commuter stock operated by South Eastern, C2C, Southern and SWT▸ is now a pleasanter travel experience than inter-city trains on what was once one of Britain's premier main lines. Still, things could be worse, they could be as uncomfortable as standard class in a Virgin pendelino where the seating appears to be a complete afterthought as anyone whos sat next to a blank wall for hours will know !
Interesting comment that. A couple of our head office staff travelled down to Bristol this week, and without being asked commented how the train was so cramped, and indeed much more so than the trains on their line (Great Northern as was, so Cl 365 or 317).
I also travelled recently from London to Edinburgh, out on an unrefurbished
HST▸ and back on a Mallard style refurbed set. I much preferred the latter, so it is possible to refurb a train to modern safety standards, and not have the high density and claustrophic ambience that is now a fact of life on FGW.
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