Not sitting pretty

Some PR disasters are entirely predictable, such as the outcry that will occur when the travelling public samples the seats on the new electric trains due on the Edinburgh-glasgow line.

They’re ghastly. A colleague says: “They’re like sitting on cardboard – but not as comfortable”. Abellio Scotrail constantly tells us how wonderful these new trains (called 385s) will be. Has anyone told Abellio that comfortable seating for the journey might be a reasonable expectation?

The 385s continue the recent tradition in Scotland’s railways of building deficiencies into brand-new trains.

We’re already into that process on the West Highland lines, where Abellio’s promised “tourist trains” due next year turn out simply to be the rightly castigated and thoroughly unloved two-coach 158s.

GORDON CASELY Crathes, Kincardineshire