Exploring how lessons from other industries can inspire a more human, connected, and compelling rail journey.

Sexual harassment and gendered violence on Britain’s railways has become a pressing issue in recent years. The number of gender-based crimes against women and girls committed on the UK’s railways has increased by 50% since 2021 (to nearly 2000), but the British Transport Police estimate that this still represents only 10-15% of the actual incidents taking place.

In order to ensure the safety of all passengers, we must consider how the design of our rolling stock, stations, and travel planning structures impacts the safety of women, girls, and all users; from wayfinding and layout, to lighting and technology.

This presentation will explore the challenge that violence against women and girls presents within rail, and key interventions to tackle this crucial issue.

Following on from Daisy's presentation, Kirsty will share her insights into design driven solutions for the future passenger experience to enhance the onboard safety of women and girls.

Against the backdrop of corporate endeavors to meet global sustainability requirements and the pressing need to curb CO2 emissions, companies operating in the mobility sector are faced with the challenge of transitioning to materials that are compatible with these goals. In his presentation, Timo will demonstrate how SIMONA's SIMORAIL product range meets these requirements when it comes to the interior design of passenger vehicles.

In developing SIMORAIL, SIMONA has created a product line of innovative, lightweight, low flammability and recyclable thermoplastics that combine the qualities of safety and functionality with contemporary design and visual appeal, thus addressing the needs of designers, transport companies, vehicle manufacturers, component manufacturers and thermoformers alike.

The layout of rail vehicles has a significant influence on passenger behaviour. Most current vehicles take little account of this behaviour, which means that planning errors result in passenger boarding and alighting times being much longer than necessary. This leads to delays, high energy consumption on the route and dissatisfied passengers. In just a few steps, layouts can be optimised to significantly increase punctuality and reduce energy consumption by up to 20%. At the same time, passenger satisfaction also increases. The presentation provides an overview of ways to efficiently increase vehicle performance.

Since 2019, Andy Sykes has partnered with East Midlands Railway (EMR) to elevate the experience for both passengers and staff through a unified design approach. In this session, Andy will share the process, which began with creating a brand design vision to define form, colour, materials, and finishes across all touchpoints. He then developed the interiors and seating of the Class 810 “Aurora” trains, before moving on to develop designs for legacy fleet Classes 158, 170, and 360, as well as consistent livery, signage, and wayfinding systems throughout the fleet. These design principles were extended beyond trains to EMR’s offices and depots, resulting in a practical, durable, and visually calm environment inspired by high-end hospitality rather than traditional rolling stock. This session will explore how EMR has transformed a diverse fleet and facilities into a cohesive, unmistakable brand experience.

Kristin and Johanna will share their insights and experiences regarding the advantages of early, interdisciplinary involvement of external design & specialist agencies and experts based on practical examples

Why is it so difficult to purchase an above-average train - one that might even excite passengers - using traditional tendering processes?

What methods and tools does the Experience-Centered Tender Definition offer to achieve better outcomes in train procurement?

And which aspects and topics deserve particular attention when the goal is to deliver outstanding passenger experience and design quality?

Railway systems can become resilient in extreme events by integrating three pillars: user-centred design, operational digitalisation, and adaptive artificial intelligence, coordinated through a solid BIM infrastructure. This presentation highlights prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery strategies, raising awareness of how to transform chaotic situations into coordinated, efficient, and life-saving actions.

This presentation provides an overview of the latest regulatory updates impacting manufacturers and operators involved in fire testing of railway components according to the BS EN 45545-2:2020 standard. It highlights key changes in the 2020 revision of EN 45545-2, focusing on enhanced fire safety requirements designed to improve passenger protection and operational safety across European rail networks.

As leisure travel increasingly becomes the most popular reason for travelling by rail across the UK and indeed European nations, interior design considerations which reflect local cultures and heritage are in demand. From the temporary outfitting of the Vilnius Pink Soup Festival Train in Lithuania, reflecting local culinary traditions, to the permanent design of ÖBB’s new Nightjet service, which offers a distinct reflection of Austria’s craft heritage, the focus on placemaking by rail is growing.

This presentation will outline the reasons for this demand, the value that cultural design can bring, and will invite the audience to engage with their own heritage-reflecting design choices

This session will share practical frameworks to ensure that interior environments deliver not just short-term compliance, but also long-term competitive advantage in a changing transport landscape. Expectations in transport design are strongly shaped by wider business trends – the experiences people have with shops, online retailers, banks, utilities, and entertainment providers all play a role. These trends shift over time, so how can we design interiors that will see decades of future service?

While trends shift over time, the behavioural science biases that shape human decision-making are relatively everlasting. For example people want to feel safe, be comfortable, and have simple options - plus much more as we'll discuss. Trends don’t emerge randomly; they gain traction when new solutions better align with these everlasting biases. Operators have a responsibility to develop a deep understanding of both users and non-users. This means recognising the trends they respond to – and, more importantly, understanding the everlasting behavioural biases driving those responses.

Rather than guessing future trends, with this insight and using practical frameworks - the rail industry can design with empathy, not only meeting current trends - but also everlasting human needs.

In this presentation, Dr. Markus Müller will present an overview of both GETA and Wagner Rail and share his insights regarding the conflict areas between interior design and fire protection and the technical solutions to overcoming these challenges.

Case study project examples will be discussed as well as a predicted outlook for the industry moving forward.

By the growing interest of people to travel by train the pressure is becoming greater as how to increase capacity in our trains, while simultaneously better meeting customer needs and providing more comfort. Comfort and capacity have thus far been trade-offs in terms of conventional train interiors – achieving both simultaneously requires innovation.

To answer this challenge NS initiated a new creative and challenging approach by inviting external professionals for developing a new train interior. In collaboration with Mecanoo (architecture) and Gispen (sustainable interior designer), two renowned firms from outside the transport sector that have a wealth of experience in creating attractive interior design environments for homes, offices, libraries and more. NS can capitalise on the insights and experiences of these specialists to develop a new train interior. This approach in combination with research under rail passengers in The Netherlands gave us a framework for developing an interior which fits the needs of our passengers best.

The design process resulted is a modular system of varying seat configurations. In addition to the traditional vis-à-vis and coach seats, we also developed bench seats, high seats and bar seats, angled so that passengers can look straight out the windows. Standing in the train is made more comfortable by adding a differentiated set of perch seats with clever support mechanisms and various amenities, including USB ports for charging mobile devices.

In this modular system, a fixed set of interior modules creates different zones within the train, where passengers can work, relax or socialise, depending on their present needs. Moreover, the modules were developed in a manner that makes the best possible use of the available space, so that during peak hours more people can find a satisfactory place to sit or stand, while during off-peak hours passengers experience more comfort than in traditional trains. This presentation will show how the design process developed, leading to concrete results for the interior. Using evidence-based design, we shared the preliminary results in several iterations with our passengers as a means of challenging each design stage. Moreover, we deployed various research methods to check whether we were actually delivering an interior that met our passengers’ needs. The final step in this process was to ascertain which developed modules adhere to governmental (safety) standards and if industry could deliver such modules at an acceptable cost. This resulted in a new train interior called the Dubbel Decker Next Generation and was show to the press on 6th of March 2025. The train will be built by Caf and will be in operation in The Netherland in 2029.

For designers, the approach to a new cabin or carriage interior has evolved over the past few decades to embrace a much wider range of expertise, some of which has become key specialisms that are now in the spotlight.

Once simply part of our remit like ergonomics, Sustainability is a discipline in itself as is Passenger Experience, and whilst as examples these two have become headline acts, they often go un-explained, perhaps because in some ways they speak for themselves.

My talk is based on a career most recently in aviation cabin design, but one that has over the past two decades been intrinsically linked to trying better to understand how the journey, the passengers experience, can be touched on, leveraged, improved, to make that journey a pleasure. What can we do to give our passengers a takeaway moment that they find themselves remembering in the future, so when they next plan a journey they might to seek out the same carrier, as you might return to the room in a hotel you stayed in years before, and always fondly remembered.

The design, engineering, manufacturing, operation, and maintenance of components made from composite or plastic materials in the railway sector are shaped by a variety of factors - including aesthetics, durability, safety, regulatory compliance, and environmental considerations.

This presentation will explore these key drivers and provide insights into the systems and decision-making processes involved in selecting the optimal construction methods, materials, and technologies to meet specific performance and sustainability requirements.

The ComfortJet is the next generation of passenger trains from České dráhy. Developed on a known platform, it offers a significantly enhanced travel experience across the Central European rail network.

This presentation will introduce the key features of the new train, including its 'Design by Elements' design approach, improved accessibility, high-speed capabilities, and environmentally friendly technologies.

Attendees will gain insight into the development process and operational goals, as well as understanding how comfort has become a part of the ComfortJet-train name.

Comfort of a train seat, in fact any seat is often thought to be completely subjective. At FIRA International we have been studying the concept and perception of comfort especially for train seats. Over the last ten years, we have carried out a number of research projects some of which was for RSSB, in order to determine as many objective measures as we can to assess the comfort of train seats.

We now have a comfort assessment method which can reliably assess the passenger comfort and is able to differentiate comfort levels between different seats. For us another concern was the durability and life time of train seats and how this would affect the comfort of passengers over the years. We can fast track and simulate real use of train seats over a lifetime of , 5, 10 15 or more years and asses the durability of the train seats. After given intervals by carrying out comfort tests we are also able to determine if the seat comfort declines as the seat gets older and by how much. This test method is the core of the RSSB’s Assessment of Passenger Seat Comfort Document (GMGN2696: 2023). This comfort assessment method helps the designers to improve the comfort of their designs and the train operators to choose seat designs with a high comfort score to provide comfortable train journeys for their passengers.