Good news for train passengers

Grand Central are going against the trend with their plans for refurbishing the HST trains for use on services between London and Sunderland, pending arrival of their new Chinese trains in 2009.

As the pictures show, the seats are laid out in groups of four, correctly located in relation to the windows. And there will be plenty of luggage space between seat backs, which is not possible when all the seats are arranged to face the same direction.

The mark 3 carriages used in the HSTs have only eight windows per side, which allows 64 seats in each vehicle, as the window spacing was designed for first class.The new carriages, which appear to be based on British Rail Engineering Ltd's International Coach, have nine windows per side, which still gives a generous seat spacing for 72 seats.

They will also be more pleasant to travel in as the windows are bigger than those in the HSTs.

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