Seat to bed conversions for overnight trains

grahame

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Seat to bed conversions for overnight trains

« on: September 21, 2024, 09:55:24 »

From ITV News

Quote

A train seat that can be converted into a lie-flat bed has been revealed at a Derby factory in a bid to transform rail travel.
A prototype was shown by train manufacturer Alstom on Thursday (19 September).
The UK^▸ ’s two overnight sleeper train services connect London with Scotland and the South West.
They both feature a combination of private cabins beds – which are sold at a premium price – and regular train seats, which many passengers select to save money but find difficult to sleep on.
Future Travel Studio said DreamSuite had been created as a “middle-ground option”.
It claimed this could offer 60% more capacity than sleeper cabins – meaning savings could be passed on to passengers – and be more comfortable than conventional seating.


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Mark A

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Re: Seat to bed conversions for overnight trains

« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2024, 17:45:46 »

Reminded me that as well as the sleepers, the railway once provided overnight 'Ordinary' trains on certain routes as a matter of course.

Memories of one in particular from London to Leeds early spring 1973. Comfortably busy, it left Kings Cross about 11pm, arrived in Leeds about 6am. We travelled in carriages that were older than the ones in use for daytime trains. The route of the train was circuitous, it passed through a world far less well lit than today's: if there was light at all, dim incandescent bulbs predominated, unfamiliar wayside stations. One called Normanton in particular would materialise looking as if it was from another age even then. Overall, the journey gained a hallucinatory quality as well as a sense of time-travel.

Mark


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ChrisB

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Re: Seat to bed conversions for overnight trains

« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2024, 19:42:47 »

I have similar recollection of using mail, newspaper & milk trains in my youth - those, along with long-distance cheap day returns (remember those?) meant you could have a night out from London as far away as Manchester, Durham, West Wales etc etc....very cheaply


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infoman

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Posts: 1535

Re: Seat to bed conversions for overnight trains

« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2024, 01:00:53 »

If we go back to the 1970's we didn't have the large and big Travelodge and Premier Inns.

Any long distance mid week game I would prefer to stay overnight.


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