CityGold - bad carpet stains / stains on toilet floor.

[MrX]

13:30 Citygold carriage (Cork-Dublin) Jan 03, 2006

I was in the Citygold carriage of a CAF train from Dublin to Cork and the carpets were extremely badly stained with some kind of viscous brown substance that looked like heavy lubricating grease / oil.

It was also all over the floor of the toilet where it looked even more disgusting due to its similar colour to something else...

I emailed IE about the issue.. I know there's nothing that you can do if something spills, but you'd think they'd give it a good clean with some carpet shampoo to get out those spots!

Other slight issue .. the end door remained fully open as did the door into the baggage car for the entire journey.
The in-seat audio also seemed to be missing channels.
Channel 1 (Newstalk)
Channel 2 (Blank)
Channel 3 (Selection of 1960s-70s hard rock [not radio] - lots of Lead Zeppelin)
Channel 4 (Selection of classical music [not lyric fm])
All other channels :Blank

They could make a lot more of this service, it clearly has the ability to play from a music library / CD changer or something

Other than that, PA worked, displays worked, customer service (even got help with bags) was very good and we seemed to be on time. Also, the trolley staff couldn't have been more polite or helpful.

[Mark Gleeson]

The carpet doesn't seem very hard wearing even in coaches only in service a few weeks its not good

It appears to be policy to lock the doors open now, too much hassle when they are working

At least you got trolley service I didn't last time out

And no complaints on the ride

[MrX]

The carpet does seem to be showing signs of "fluffing" but that's true of most new carpets, a few runs over with a hoover and it'll look less fluffy / prone to patterns. The choice of colour isn't particularly good from the point of view of showing up stains though.

Whatever was on this coach's floor was not just normal wear and tear though. It was really really bad staining, like someone had spilled blobs of axle grease all over the place. It'd have shown up on any carpet, unless it was dark brown

Surely it should be policy to get CAF to fix the doors. Not to just lock them out.
Doing so will impact upon the functioning of the Air Conditioning.

Some of the doors were working, some weren't.

I think IE generally have a problem with internal doors. They've a very very poor history of using them correctly on the MK3 fleet too. It was rare to see a MK3 with the doors switched on. Also, it was far worse when they were open as the MK3s are not quite as well insulated between the coaches. It created a lot of drafts and a LOT of noise. The new trains are pretty quiet and not at all breezy between coaches.

The ride was fine, as good as MK3

[Mark Gleeson]

Well the doors are fine its the humans that are the problem

People are impatient and force the doors breaking them, or they close on a soild object eg suitcase and shatter, its modern accessibility and safety standards which are the problem

From that you can guess that a management decision was taken to prevent further delays

I've come across 2 working doors in 3 trips. There is no noise difference thankfully and since the AC works its not really a issue until you hit a station stop

[Colm Moore]

Best carpets for heavy public use are mottled or patterned in mid to dark colours.

[MrX]

yeah you can't beat the "camouflage" carpet

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Well the doors are fine its the humans that are the problem

People are impatient and force the doors breaking them, or they close on a soild object eg suitcase and shatter, its modern accessibility and safety standards which are the problem

Well the doors were closing on people too, not just suitcases, so the doors aren't perfect.

And I've seen a number of the hosts pushing the doors to open quicker too when they're scurrying up and down the trains

[markpb]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Well the doors are fine its the humans that are the problem

If people, without being trained, cannot use the doors easily, I'd suggest maybe the doors aren't, in fact, fine

[Mark Gleeson]

Originally Posted by markpb

If people, without being trained, cannot use the doors easily, I'd suggest maybe the doors aren't, in fact, fine

Seems to be a accessibility thing which means you must be halted before the door opens, moving objects not good for partially sighted

[MrX]

Do you think that there's a possibility that the regulations are being blaimed on what is actually just a very poorly designed door system?

I can't really see how they would require the doors to crush passengers / luggage.

The delay's only half the problem. The major issue is that they're not picking up the fact that people / items are in their path when they're closing. That's a design flaw or a technical problem.

People tend to behave in similar ways world wide. Are trains in the UK also suffering from people pushing the doors? Surely they should be robust enough to withstand being pushed!?! A simple notice saying AUTOMATIC DOOR - WITH DELAYED ACTION would suffice.
People are used to automatic doors opening quickly everywhere else, I really can't see how it's a big problem on a train.
Also, I fail to see why partially sighted people would be in any way hindered by a fast opening door. If you're partially sited, the big problem would be not seeing a closed door and walking into it ?!

I strongly suspect that the design is a one-off and is implemented poorly.
Any trains i've seen elsewhere in europe usually have double doors that open in the middle. IE seem to have specified the same design as the MK3s i.e. a big sliding panel.

[Mark Gleeson]

TGV internal doors will close on you are well

[MrX]

Just because it's on a TGV doesn't mean that they're a good design either.

The doors should pick up the fact that there's something blocking them and open. It's very dangerous otherwise, particularly if the door's likely to crack as a result. Someone could end up cut or otherwise injured by glass.

If they cause an injury there will be law suits. This is one of the most litigious countries on earth, lest we forget!

Also from a mobility impared person's point of view, it could be very nasty if you were moving slowly through the door in your wheelchair or on a walking frame and it decided to slowly crush you because you were in its path.

The design is indefensible.

It should operate like a lift door, i.e. with beams at the edge of the door frame that if broken will prevent the door mechanism from closing.
Pressure-based systems are usually useless.

[Mark Gleeson]

The MK3 partition doors are made out of GRP incredibly strong stuff, totally impossible to break without equipment, i.e. crap in a accident, new doors are weaker to allow escape.

Currently doors are locked open avoids the issue totally and makes it imposssible to road test the system

Mk3 has pressure sensors seems to work a whole lot better

[MrX]

Perhaps that computer voice is ... our good friend HAL 2000 (the evil computer from 2001 a space odyssey.. The doors squishing people are just the first step

Just wait till you get "I'm sorry Mark, I can't let you do that" Bilingually!

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by MrX

People are used to automatic doors opening quickly everywhere else, I really can't see how it's a big problem on a train.

A shop is quite different. You don't have people sitting / standing next to the door of a shop that could trigger the IR sensor.

I'm not sure what sensor is used on the Mk4s, but IR would have a substantial time advantage over them as IR set-ups can kick in when the person is say 2m from the door