CrossCountry HST Coach B standard seating

[yorkie]

Does anyone know what the current status of the Standard class seating in Coach B on XC HSTs is?

A member of catering crew boarded this train at Leeds and told people who had been sitting there that they should not be sat there and that the staff on the train before Leeds shouldn't have let them sit there. There was no signage indicating this part of the train was out of use.

The passengers asked why; he said he did not know why and went on to say that this area has "never been used on HSTs on CrossCountry". I was just passing through and at this point I said that it was taken out of use as a Covid measure. He said he had been working these trains for 26 years and it had never been used as a regular seating area as it used to be used to serve hot meals.

Meanwhile a lady and her young child also arrived (oblivious to the discussion taking place) and sat down and he then relented, let them sit there, and gave up.

Anyone got any ideas what's going on?

 

[hexagon789]

Does anyone know what the current status of the Standard class seating in Coach B on XC HSTs is?

A member of catering crew boarded this train at Leeds and told people who had been sitting there that they should not be sat there and that the staff on the train before Leeds shouldn't have let them sit there. There was no signage indicating this part of the train was out of use.

The passengers asked why; he said he did not know why and went on to say that this area has "never been used on HSTs on CrossCountry". I was just passing through and at this point I said that it was taken out of use as a Covid measure. He said he had been working these trains for 26 years and it had never been used as a regular seating area as it used to be used to serve hot meals.

Meanwhile a lady and her young child also arrived (oblivious to the discussion taking place) and sat down and he then relented, let them sit there, and gave up.

Anyone got any ideas what's going on?

26 years?

Hmm.

The TCC (Trailer Composite Catering) which are Coach B with the small, 10-seat Std Class saloon, have only existed since XC brought back its own HST fleet in 2008.

Further back it would've been TRSB vehicles (Trailer Restaurant Standard Buffet) in the XC HST sets; under InterCity and Virgin the seats in these were used for Silver Standard, possibly what the staff member was thinking of?

But I've never known Coach B to be essentially banned for passengers to sit in, a quick search through up nothing on this forum except a few mentions of Coach B being unreservable in Std.

 

[Bletchleyite]

This sounds just a bit like the old Virgin Coach K debacle...

 

[hexagon789]

This sounds just a bit like the old Virgin Coach K debacle...

Well, they did run XC for a while...

...if the shoe fits...

 

[43096]

26 years?

Hmm.

The TCC (Trailer Composite Catering) which are Coach B with the small, 10-seat Std Class saloon, have only existed since XC brought back its own HST fleet in 2008.

Further back it would've been TRSB vehicles (Trailer Restaurant Standard Buffet) in the XC HST sets; under InterCity and Virgin the seats in these were used for Silver Standard, possibly what the staff member was thinking of?

But I've never known Coach B to be essentially banned for passengers to sit in, a quick search through up nothing on this forum except a few mentions of Coach B being unreservable in Std.

Historically coach A was the TGS on an HST, so coach B would have been a normal TS vehicle. Clearly the member of staff was making it up as he went along.

 

[hexagon789]

Historically coach A was the TGS on an HST, so coach B would have been a normal TS vehicle. Clearly the member of staff was making it up as he went along.

I should've said catering vehicle instead when referring to the previous arrangement.

Either way though, the TCC hasn't existed as a vehicle type for 26 years and it sounds like the usual made up nonsense.

 

[Master29]

Historically coach A was the TGS on an HST, so coach B would have been a normal TS vehicle. Clearly the member of staff was making it up as he went along.

Not with Crosscountry. They've always lettered their Coaches the opposite way as A and B are the first-class coaches with the small standard area being discussed in coach B.

 

[hexagon789]

Not with Crosscountry. They've always lettered their Coaches the opposite way as A and B are the first-class coaches with the small standard area being discussed in coach B.

Post-2008, yes. But 26 years ago - I suspect the lettering BR used was still utilised.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

This sounds just a bit like the old Virgin Coach K debacle...

Sadly not old; I had an appalling interaction with Avanti due to this. In general though, I agree - most likely a selfish member of staff wanting his own little chill out area.

 

[AlterEgo]

Sounds like a member of staff wanting somewhere to hide for a bit and play Candy Crush. That small seating area has only existed on those HSTs since the refurb anyway, so the 26 years stuff is nonsense. It’s regular standard class seating as is marked as such on the seating plan.