Many of our supporters have been complaining about the “concrete” seats in the new Thameslink trains.

In the House of Commons the Rail Minister claimed “seats normally become more comfortable over time through use”.

We used the Freedom of Information Act to seek the DfT’s research or factual evidence used to make this assertion. It turns out the DfT do not actually hold any such evidence at all!

Indeed it turns out that there’s no evidence for the statement in the wider rail industry either – and the Rail Safety and Standards Board has actually called for research into the subject.