Lisa and I having a few days away, exploring Wales.  The class 197 trains up here are ubiquitous for Transport for Wales services - we arrived on Friday intro Chester, spend Saturday on the bus, and on Sunday I took a trip to Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog.  Pictures here, of course, the rail ones.

















My trains mostly on time - worst was an 8 minute late back into Chester last night caused by signalling issues between Colwyn Bay and Abergele / we had to be talked through a couple of signals.  Apart from the Conway Valley train, all comfortably busy - that was quiet yesterday, but then it was a dreary winter Sunday on a service that only runs 4 round trips the whole day.     Class 197 far more comfortable that the IETs (sorry) and I / we have always got table seats (even if we did have to ask for bags to be moved a couple of times) so I'm not sure of the airline pitch.    Train WiFi a bit patchy - but then from Roman Bridge south there's a not unexpected reason.

 
Is that a more comfortable seat, or ride, or both?

The seat frames are the same as fitted in standard class to the IETs, but the cushioning appears to be superior from your photos (and presumably more expensive). Seeing videos of the recently refurbished Cross-Country Voyager, which has been fitted with new seats throughout, upgraded cushions could be a cheaper more cost-effective option for improving the IETs, and maybe wouldn’t have to wait until they were over twenty years old? Indeed, it could even be presented as a GBR-inspired enhancement!

We can but hope….

 

It was the comfort of the seats I noted; the ride didn't "wow" or horrify me, though top speed way down on an 80x of course.  There were a couple of bumps on the ride, come to think of it.

I am now on a 150 calling at Llaneverywhere-upon-request and it is notably noisier

 

I am fully expecting exactly that to happen.