Why don't people think about how things work?

Passengers on my local train line often complain that the train heating or air conditioning is on when it shouldn't be. They seem to be under the illusion that the driver turns the heating on - presumably as a separate operation. I find this extraordinary. The driver gets into the cab and turns on the heating/aircon according to a guess of how hot it is in the carriages.

Just a moment's though shows up why this is not true:

1) The c2c class 357 trains can run in formations of 4, 8 or 12 carriages. How can cab controls  be configured to cope with these different configurations? Can the driver control each carriage individually, or each 4 car unit? Maybe s/he can control each HVAC unit separately - I think there are two per carriage - so that could be 24 units on one train. If s/he can control more than just whole train off or whole train on, how does s/he decide what to do in each case s/he has control over?

2) Given that our home and office HVAC systems are controlled by a timer and a thermostat - and this is nothing new - why on earth wouldn't the train be the basically same? Why would the driver be expected to be a human thermostat for a train of 12 carriages

3) We know there must be at least one HVAC unit per carriage. Whey would it not have its own controls?

4) Why would the HVAC be set up such that the driver has to remember to turn it in?

5) Why is there a form on the c2c website asking for feedback on carriage temperature problems? Are people expecting that they report in real-time and someone contacts the driver to tel him to turn the HVACon or off? If not, what do they do? Reprimand the driver - don't get it wrong again?


https://www.c2c-online.co.uk/our-network/onboard-experience/



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