From the
Daily Mail:
The train with seats so small you complain when you DO get one!
* South West Trains 'makes easyJet look luxurious'
* 'A seat on which one cannot sit is a seat in name only'
It's certainly an interesting approach to the problem of overcrowding on trains.
A rail company has made its new seats so uncomfortably narrow that although more can be fitted into the carriages fewer passengers want to use them.
Commuters have been left falling into the aisles and complaining of back pain and fearing deep vein thrombosis.
A measly 43cm (16.9ins) is allocated for each passenger in the carriages, which have five seats across, in a two-plus-three formation.
Regular carriages have only two seats either side of the aisle, allowing room for arm rests and seats that are 45cm (17.7in) wide and have a 4cm (1.6in) space between them.
Train operator South West Trains, has dismissed its customers^ gripes on the busy Portsmouth to Waterloo service, claiming the lack of space during the 90-minute journey in standard class is not a health risk but merely a ^comfort^ issue.
Now the Tory MP▸ for Portsmouth North, Penny Mordaunt, has picked up the gauntlet on her constituents^ behalf.
To illustrate her case, she tried to fit three colleagues into the space allocated for three passengers on the Class 450 Desiro carriages ^ and found one ^would have been 90 per cent in the aisle^.
She told MPs during a Commons travel debate: ^Commuters on the London-Portsmouth line pay handsomely for their rail tickets.
^In return they should be able to travel ... without being in discomfort or running the risk of doing themselves harm.
^A report commissioned by South West Trains on the ergonomics of its Class 450 carriages, which are now on half the Portsmouth-London line, found that 59 per cent of people, when their elbows are taken into account, will not fit into the seats. My admittedly anecdotal evidence shows that most people prefer to travel with their elbows most of the time.^
She added: ^A seat on which one cannot sit is a seat in name only.^
Mike Hancock, MP for Portsmouth South, said the carriages made budget airline easyJet ^look luxurious^, while East Hampshire MP Damian Hinds said the issue also affected those in Liss, Liphook and Petersfield.
Transport Minister Theresa Villiers agreed to meet Miss Mordaunt to discuss her concerns.
A spokesman for Stagecoach-owned South West Trains said the seats reduced crowding at peak times, complied with legislation, and had been deemed ^ergonomically sound^ by independent assessors.
But Alistair Thompson, 33, who travels daily from Portsmouth to London, said commuters tried to avoid the ^skinny-seat^ trains, explaining: ^Any ordinary-sized person is falling over the edge or pressed up against someone. It is like a sweatshop ^ I prefer to stand.^
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