Passengers complained they had been ‘thrown about’ in the new carriages. A transport operator in Scotland spent almost £120,000 retrofitting new subway trains after passengers complained that the service was too wobbly. Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), operator of the Glasgow Subway, splashed out to stabilise the fleet by fitting over 100 dampers to carriages. The 17 new train cars launched last year as part of a £288 million revamp of Glasgow’s underground rail system.
In the new fleet, features include a walk-through design, air conditioning and greater wheelchair accessibility. The multimillion modernisation programme started in 2016 to upgrade deteriorating Metro-Cammell trains, which had been in service for 44 years. Passengers had officially complained to SPT that they had been “thrown about” in the new subway carriages. A commuter wrote on X/Twitter that the new trains “rattle about a lot more”.
The train dampers are devices designed to reduce the vibrations and noise in trains for smoother journeys on the service known as “The Clockwork Orange”. According to SPT, the trains met all required safety standards and the dampers were added to improve “ride quality”. An SPT spokesperson said: “Following feedback from some passengers, SPT paid for the retrofitting of dampers to be added to the new train fleet to improve the ride quality of the trains in the system.
