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Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!msb
From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.aviation,net.politics,net.railroad
Subject: Re: "A Design Proposal That Would Make Passenger Planes Safe"
Message-ID: <1046@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 18-Jan-86 15:45:08 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.1046
Posted: Sat Jan 18 15:45:08 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jan-86 16:23:17 EST
References: <3223@hplabsb.UUCP> <4785@alice.UUCP> <1029@lsuc.UUCP> <843@unc.unc.UUCP>
Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Followup-To: net.railroad
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 36
Xref: utcs net.aviation:2355 net.railroad:715
Summary: Side remark on trains

I'll try to keep this brief, since I'm including two non-railway groups.
Further followups should go to net.railroad (or ARPA railroad list) only.

In article <1029@lsuc.UUCP> I (Mark Brader (msb@lsuc.UUCP) wrote:
> > [I don't like the idea of flying in backwards seats.]
> > (I'm not speaking hypothetically; I have traveled backwards, though not by
> > air.  In Britain, and I think Europe generally, half the seats on trains
> > face backwards, and if the train is busy there may be no choice.  For that
> > matter, similar conditions apply on the Toronto subway.)

Edoardo Biagioni (biagioni@unc.UUCP) replied:
> I have traveled backwards too, and do so whenever I get a chance. European
> trains do offer the option of sitting with your back to the engine, if you
> prefer. That's one of the things I don't like about U.S. trains, you don't
> get a choice. ...
> I am surprised that U.S. trains do not [consider personal preference].

I'm surprised to hear this about U.S. trains, because the great majority
of coach seating on Canadian trains is reversible.  The reason is not
mainly consideration for passenger preference but eliminating any need to
reverse the whole coach to make all the seats face forward, the way almost
all people (here) like it.  (I suspect that the origin of this difference
between Europeans and North Americans is the (even) greater prevalence of
cars here than there, by the way...)

However, most Canadian trains are about 30 years old, and (shocking
confession for net.railroad) I haven't yet tried the newer LRC's.  I know
Amtrak has replaced a lot of its older equipment, but I've generally only
used Amtrak for sleeping-car-length trips lately.  So how sure are you
about the nonreversibility of seating in U.S. trains?

Of course, reversible seats would not be practical in airplanes.
Not any design I've ever seen, anyway.  It has to be one way or the other.
And I stand, or sit, by forward.

Mark Brader