The S Stock are Growing on Me

I'm not going to argue all your points (as some bits I agree with and some bits I partially agree with) but I'd like to add the following in favour of LED/DMI/whatever they are...

One benefit of the new trains and the technology is now each car has at least one LED/DMI showing what the destination of the train is, and what line it's running on (useful on the Baker Street - Aldgate (East) - Edgware Road sections).

Each car also has them inside the train, where blinds wouldn't be suitable in the slightest, so that's also quite good.

One bit I am going to pick a hole in though is:



Imagine the situation, as it is now, that LU have just bought new trains, and they've bought them with blinds... there's now a new destination to be added to the blinds (let's say, for argument's sake, Great Missenden)... How do you go about adding this to all the trains?

Well, you'd have to buy 58 new blinds, and fit them... as opposed to adding a new destination to the computer and uploading that to all the trains. Assuming that TFL have bought the system correctly, I'd have thought that would have been quicker.

This is even more so when (I believe) all the S8s and S7s have the same software and destination possibilities, so it would be more like 190+ trains you'd have to buy new blinds for...

Well, there is that, I'm sure...

Not that having a fancy, clever, electronic system works well anyway, as I got on an Aldgate train at Uxbridge that until just before Hillingdon Station was 'Not in Service' according to all the displays.

I've had the same from Uxbridge too.. the driver apologised over the PA saying his "colleague may have had a liquid lunch" ;D

Agreed on this, but there a couple of issues developing:

1. Cleanliness
Almost every S stock train, including those which by the introduction timetable on this board have only been in service 3 weeks, are outright filthy. The 1972 stock on the Bakerloo line by contrast look immaculate, despite regularly spending some time outside, even if not as much as the S stock. What's the reasoning for this?

2. Trim quality
Have noticed a few loose fittings rattling around thus far. Well, three separate "faults" on about a dozen S stock journeys. All of these were units introduced less than a year prior to my journey. Things like the plastic attachments for the maps/adverts loosely dangling and crashing into the walls at every bump, and something loose inside the panel above where the A/C is that was rattling almost continuously.

The ride quality and external appearance of the S stock trains seems to quite a high standard, but the interior design, nice as it is, from these issues seems now to be very cheaply made, which is a bit concerning if the S stock are intended to follow even the 43 year service life of the C stock, let alone the 51 years of the A stock.

On the plus side I haven't seen any major issues with the DVA other than a bit of consistency. i.e. on terminating at Aldgate a rare few trains state 'the destination of this train has now changed' to indicate it changing ends. I have not seen this happen often despite often waiting it out at Aldgate for an S stock to arrive. Every train has had the DVA enabled, and correct, though there's an inexplicable gap between announcing the station name upon arrival, and stating the destination of the train, to the extent that the latter usually is announced after the door close alarm goes off - IMO the destination should be stated with enough time for any passengers to realise they may be on the wrong train and to get off, even if they may not always pay attention

By contrast, the DVAs on the D stock are often going wrong, and the B07 stock on the DLR seem worse still.

On the few occasions when it's permitted, the acceleration on the S stock seems as brisk as it should be for a fully-motored train, so here's hoping that's put to good use once the ATO arrives.

The floors are not weathering too well, who an earth thought white would work well as a base floor colour? when the A stock were refurbished they used charcol black (like most refurbs) as it disguised soil very well, seems like a step back to me.

Ditto the class 378s. I suspect though the decision was based on the quite understandable desire to make the interior look brighter.

The in car DMIs are great, they really are what are required. I saw another unit with blank destination box today. I'm not saying we should change it to a blind, I just want them to work. Is that too much to ask?

I suppose the purpose of interior DMI's is for the hard of hearing, or whatever I'm supposed to refer to it as.

Are the S Stocks yet capable of displaying Watford Junction? If not there is something to be added

The same happens at Uxbridge. On an S stock I get on at the first door I come to, (i.e the rearmost door), then walk though to the fourth car from the front as this is the closest one to the exit at Ruislip*. Although I am reasonably agile, I often have hands full with shopping, and can lose my balance if the train moves off without warning when I am still walking through the train.

A serious and I hope constructive suggestion to Met Line management, if they are reading this, is to introduce a brief announcement that the train is about to depart when it is starting from the terminus.

* I do this whether I am wearing my anorak or not!!

They're not that bad : they could do with luggage racks maybe, and the District line could probably do with Metropolitan line style trains rather than the Circle line style, but overall, they're pretty decent. It's wonderful to finally have Underground stock with air conditioning too!

I like the 'A' stock, and they've served London well, but I'm afraid they've served their time as regular service trains. We do need a unit or two saved though for preservation.

your saying what others are thinking.I've moderated some comments however there nothing that can be done now.

A bit of basic physics will tell you that the creaking is the metal, that is used to construct the carriages, audibly reacting to the stresses produced by motion. Phil, as a science teacher, will probably be able to give a much better explanation, but at a very basic level that is the issue.

The 08 stock is far more suitable for the Circle Line than it is for the Met.

I have doubts like you about the construction longevity of the S stock. I am interested to see how the air conditioning stands up and maintained over the years.

I predict, I hope that I am wrong, that there is going to a major, major problem with excessive heat building up in the sub surface tunnels in the Central Area caused by the S stock air con pumping out hot air, where the stretches of tunnels and stations have had the original ventilation openings closed up. It can be uncomfortablire in the Summer on the platforms at the bottom half of the Circle Line, it's going to be real bad in a few years time.

Also I can't understand, like you, why the S stock, new and refurb trains have to be so clinical. Why can there not be more colour and decoration. On older Underground trains the plastic used to be patterned, which would not show dirt or scuff marks like on current interior schemes. The only bit of such non off white plastic being used, which I have seen, is the division screen next to the open/wheel chair area on the Vic Line 09 stock.