NEWS IN BRIEF

GWR’s new seats ‘not comfortable’

COMMUTERS have bombarded Great Western Railway with criticism of the seats on its new trains.

The Hitachi Class 800s faced problems when they were introduced last month and were taken out of service within days. They returned to the tracks the next day.

Great Western Railway (GWR) has said most of the feedback it had received on social media was positive or neutral. But not everyone’s happy.

“Your new train seats are not as comfortable, very upright and the armrests are too low,” said one.

Nicola Sedgwick forked out for first class “for comfy seats because of painful hips”. “Ouch!” she said. “Back to cattle class! Save money at least.”

Jordan Colls said he would “stick to the old” train having “finally” tried the new. “Seats are pretty hard, not sure it’s smoother and it’s pretty noisy,” he said.

Claire Roberts travelled from Cardiff to London.

“Seats are a bit hard. Might have a numb bum by Paddington,” she said.

The Sheepish Spud was travelling to London. “Seats are not comfortable,” said Spud.

GWR insisted that “of more than 1,600 contacts on social media more than 70% has been positive or neutral”.

A spokesman added: “The Intercity express train continue to perform well in service. There will be a small number of cosmetic changes to the first trains in service over the next few months.”