Whats in the Box????

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

why? Stakeholders are generally public....

[JayMac]

Very strange then that it was put in such a public place.

Indeed. I've said as much in private correspondence with FGW^▸ (First Great Western).

[John R]

There's at least one first class coach going around with a couple of the new style seats.

The picture in Modern Railways of the mock up of 1st on IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project. This will offer more capacity on routes, save money, give a consistent and safe service and meet customer requirements. Intended to replace HSTs.) astonished me. The table in the bay of four only extends half way across, so the two aisle seats have nowhere to put so much as a cup of coffee.  It's the most ridiculous thing I've seen for a long time. 

[Timmer]

why? Stakeholders are generally public....

Indeed, but not to have revealed what was in the box to everyone seems a wasted marketing opportunity to me having gone to the lengths to have had the box constructed and placed at Paddington.

[NickB]

The picture in Modern Railways of the mock up of 1st on IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project. This will offer more capacity on routes, save money, give a consistent and safe service and meet customer requirements. Intended to replace HSTs.) astonished me. The table in the bay of four only extends half way across, so the two aisle seats have nowhere to put so much as a cup of coffee.  It's the most ridiculous thing I've seen for a long time. 

Perhaps its a plan to make window seats more attractive to passengers and stop 'aisle blocking'     

In all seriousness that sounds baaaaaaad.

[IndustryInsider]

There's at least one first class coach going around with a couple of the new style seats.

The picture in Modern Railways of the mock up of 1st on IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project. This will offer more capacity on routes, save money, give a consistent and safe service and meet customer requirements. Intended to replace HSTs.) astonished me. The table in the bay of four only extends half way across, so the two aisle seats have nowhere to put so much as a cup of coffee.  It's the most ridiculous thing I've seen for a long time. 

I haven't seen the Modern Railways picture, but other pictures I've seen have the odd table that extends half-way, but it appears that most of them extend the whole way across.  Such as in this image where if you look at the seats in the background there is a table all the way over the bay of four.

http://www.dca-design.com/images/content/news/HI32ps0081_full.jpg

[thetrout]

Hmmm... Speculation and voices tell me it may or may not be something to do with The Internet

[a-driver]

That's some of the wifi equipment.  If you look on the ceiling in the centre of the train there should be two white receivers/transmitters as well.

[JayMac]

Aha.

I did wonder what the two white domes were that I saw in the ceiling of a Mk3 carriage the other day.

[ChrisB]

At least two HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) with equipment fitted are already trialling wifi....unannounced.

[a-driver]

All the hardware, including all the SIM cards, needed to provide wifi to the whole train is being installed in the buffet vehicles.  No buffet vehicle in the set will mean no wifi.

[ChrisB]

The staff aren't being trained on how to reset the box....so if there's a hiccup, that's it until the depot resets it.

[JayMac]

Isn't the wi-fi system also to be used by the buffet staff for card transactions? Or is a different discrete system being fitted for that?

Chatting with Customer Hosts I've been told that their ancient, British Airways cast offs, EPOS^▸ (Electronic Point of Sale) machines are being replaced by a full online Chip & Pin system at the same time as the wi-fi goes live.

[ChrisB]

I'm not sure I want my card details transacted over a public unsecured wifi thanks....

[grahame]

I'm not sure I want my card details transacted over a public unsecured wifi thanks....

Question for thetrout - wouldn't / won't it be https rather than http, in effect creating a robust encoding tunnel between the device (your laptop / the buffet payment terminal) and the server being reached?