VLocity 160 - Passenger Experience

Passenger Experience

The seating layout for the VLocity is 2x2, with a mix of club-style seats facing each other, and aircraft-style rows, some facing forwards, others backwards. The seats can't be rotated to face any particular direction, and seat backs are fixed, not reversible. Four wheelchair spaces are provided in each set through the provision of tip-up seats. The VLocity offers economy-class seating only, although the seat width is equivalent to first class seating on V/Line locomotive-hauled services. In response to passenger feedback, the seatback angle in the intermediate carriages was made 2.5 degrees more upright than the original carriages. New deliveries from July 2010 onwards (VL42 and above) featured a changed seatback angle and new seat fabrics.

While VLocity carriages have tinted windows, they lack the curtains as provided by older V/Line rolling stock. Passengers may move freely between the two or three semi-permanently-coupled vehicles in a set, but not between the sets themselves. Conductors may transfer between coupled sets at station stops, if possible.

Tables were installed in one unit (VL28) for evaluation purposes, but were later removed. In three-car VLocity units, 32 seats in the intermediate carriage have fold-down tray tables, much like the first class seats on locomotive-hauled services.

Overhead racks exist for small baggage, while larger baggage is stored in the middle of the unit, with some spaces large enough for surfboards and bicycles. In January 2008, passengers were banned from taking bicycles on VLocity trains during peak hours, despite the designated bike area, with the ban repealed in February 2008.

A number of sets have received illuminated "keep clear" signage behind the drivers cab, these signs being lit up when the cab is occupied, to ensure the passengers on crowded services do not prevent the train driver from exiting the cab in an accident. Set 33 was the first to be fitted in March 2009.