FWIW other types of trains have caught fire too, Pacers don't have a monopoly on self-combustion!
Indeed! I much prefer facing forwards on a train (and I really hate facing backwards on a bus), and once travelled on an HST from Sheffield to St Pancras. I boarded, found a forward-facing seat, forgetting that the train reversed at Nottingham, from where I sat facing the rear all the way to London, and had to remain there as the train was very crowded.But they’re only facing backwards 50% of the time?
Usually (on a downed aeroplane) everything immediately around it does!Obviously, the safest place to sit is by the Black Box.
Well, it never gets destroyed, does it?
That's fine as long as your body will endure the same environment that the crash recorder willObviously, the safest place to sit is by the Black Box.
Well, it never gets destroyed, does it?
Surely that's an argument for being in the black box?Obviously, the safest place to sit is by the Black Box.
Well, it never gets destroyed, does it?
Indeed! I much prefer facing forwards on a train (and I really hate facing backwards on a bus), and once travelled on an HST from Sheffield to St Pancras. I boarded, found a forward-facing seat, forgetting that the train reversed at Nottingham, from where I sat facing the rear all the way to London, and had to remain there as the train was very crowded.
To return to a question thrown up by this thread, I've never really worried about where I am on a train, as the chances of its being involved in an accident are so extremely small that it doesn't come into my mind.
... but crash recorders are orange, not black.Surely that's an argument for being in the black box?
180’s combusted far more than pacers.
They couldn’t use the black box from the turbo star in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash as it had been destroyed.Obviously, the safest place to sit is by the Black Box.
Well, it never gets destroyed, does it?
Actually, I'm paraphrasing Jasper Carrott from many years ago, who then went on to ask why don't they make planes out of the same stuff that they make black boxes from, conveniently overlooking the fact that the things would never get off the ground if they were...Surely that's an argument for being in the black box?
I've been on a bus that has stopped suddenly, very sore when you slam straight into the seat in front, just about winds you.Just to point out that if the train decelerates rapidly (e.g. collision) and you are in a forward-facing seat you are likely to bend at the waist and hit your head on the top of the table and your knees at its underside, and be thrown into the table at stomach level. If there's no table, you'll take a flying leap at the passenger opposite. If it's an airline seat, the seat back in front of you provides a similar risk.
Travelling with your back to direction of travel will result in you just being pressed firmly into the seat; an airline seat seems the safest option, as you won't have a close encounter with the person opposite.
But of course, as you say there's much greater risks in being almost anywhere else than on a train.
He recounted, on his return, how a fair number of people afterwards were saying they had been injured by items ejected from the luggage racks (I guess hard/heavy briefcases were a lot more common then)
Not only that but weren't luggage racks across the carriage on the seat backs on those sorts of trains? Much more likely for something to go flying out and hit people than on modern trains where they're lengthwise along the wall of the train I'd have thought?