colour of train fittings

The Circle line location, if it was between Baker Street - Aldgate, was 99% a Met train. Unless you did see the S7 operating!

The idea is that all the trains look the same so spare parts are easier to come by, instead of having one yellow grab pole in a Met line train because all the Met ones have gone etc!

Saw a 7 car S Stock on the Met last week, presumably being road tested. Car numbers had '3' in the middle rather than a '0' or a '1' ....... and it had Circle, H&C and I think District line maps within.

The maybe a color changing bar above the door to indicate the line? But then I'm being ridiculous. On the DLR all the stock is one of two types, (from what I'm aware) which is not designated to certain lines, with most stations operating at least 2 different services.

That's still nowhere near as clear as being able to quickly look at the colour of the bars on you've just arrived on the platform and need to know where the train standing in front of you is going.

The colour of the poles is subject to DDA requirements - specifically that they must contrast with the background.

It was proven a long time ago that Yelllow isn't actually easier to see for those with poor sight, as had been assumed - hence the contrast requirement now. All that being said, the Yellow must contrast adequately on S stock otherwise it wouldn't be in use.

In terms of why wasn't another colour chosen, I don't know the actual answer but the obvious starter for ten is that having one colour means bulk buying is cheaper - maintenance will also be cheaper and the stock holding requirements will be cut in half.

It might be that maroon was considered and didn't meet the contrast requirements. It did seem to be policy for a while that grab poles matched line colours - perhaps it was decided very early on in S stock's design process that being a generic stock it should reflect that in the colour of the poles.......mind you, the Circle line is of course Yellow

Yes, painting on the Underground is a lot more involved than a quick respray. All sorts of approvals need to be sought.

From a practical point of view it needs to be extremely hard wearing (think of all the abuse a hand hold gets even in normal use). It also needs to be non toxic, non flammable and non fade with consistent colour reproduction.

I don't know but suspect they are powder coated rather than spray painted.

Generally the mantra on the SSR is always take the first train & change if necessary......but by doing so you might not get a coveted seat. Granted you have half a chance on a Baker Street starter but I gather Met users prize a seat above all else, even if that means waiting for a direct train.

And being as S stock have less than A stock*.......

_{* I'm with prjb's train of thought (pardon the pun) - A stock's 3 seater's can't really seat 3 and so A stock doesn't actually have the seating capacity that's claimed. Has S stock get less seats? Hmm.....}

The announcements and interior/exterior displays make it pretty clear which train you are boarding.

The line colours are in the seat coverings.

I think A Stock can still seat 464 it's just that people's habbits have changed and they don't want to sit in the middle. The class 350 trains to Euston seat 3+2 and they are tight!

The early computer generated shots for the S stock had the grab rails in green!!

That would be a great idea for the next generation of trains... or for a S7/S8 refurb.

There's not really a safety issue if the glass is toughened to lots-of-passengers-holding-on standard, just like the glass shields separating the seats from the vestibules are

LED lights, plastics anyone?

If youre on about LEDs Just reuse the LEDs from the Olympic stadium

I like the idea of colour coded handles lit by LEDs. You could have a central steel core which is then encapsulated in tough plastic.

Or have a steel pole with groves in it for the LED strips.

It also seems behind the times that the S stock is using flourescent saloon lighting, you can get really good LED tubes now that give a nice warm light, unlike the horrible white/blue things on some buses.