Cross my heart...
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Hand on heart, I really swear that I do try hard not to knock dear old British Rail but they do make it very difficult sometimes. At last week's Design Council seminar in Glasgow on public transport — called "Passengers are people" — a top BR man gave his views. He described what BR was doing in carriage and train design and very impressive it all was. He showed films and slides of the High Speed Train and the Advanced Passenger Train (two very different things, apparently) and talked about air conditioning, reclining seats and electrification. However, my reporter saw through this image of an efficient, forward thinking, well planned organization in a flash.
Our BR friend went on to tell how it had been decided to experiment with loose seat-covers on Several trains. They were designed to be taken off and cleaned every four months but unfortunately they had been on for 12 months and, not surprisingly, were looking somewhat dirty. The reason? Well, someone had ordered one set of covers but forgotten about a spare and now the material was in short supply!
Still, that loose cover idea is a good one — perhaps coachmen could try it too. But remember a spare set, please.