The interior design manages to make the most of the space available and avoids any sense of claustrophobia. Discreet LED lighting and a well-chosen colour scheme using the core white and orange brand colours makes a contemporary design statement. The open gangway sections maintain sightlines throughout the interior and contribute to the open, spacious feel despite its diminutive size.
Stadler also had the first of the East Anglia Flirt trains on display. With its novel central power car and articulated carriage layout, these trains also showcased Stadler’s innovative approach as well as their excellent build quality.
Other trains from Hitachi, Alstom, CRRC, Siemens, Skoda and all the other major suppliers provided clear indications of how the future of trains is evolving and showcased a number of exciting trends in the industry.
In the past, train design has sometimes become polarised between impractical visual styling exercises and pragmatic but uninspiring engineering solutions. So it was great to see so many examples of design and engineering working in tandem to deliver great passenger-focused solutions at this year’s show. In one example, Alstom were demonstrating on their stand their catenary-free tramway solutions based on an innovative ground-level power supply and static charging system. This alternative infra-structure should open up a wealth of design and installation opportunities.
More immediately, a well-engineered combination of cantilever seating and underfloor heating presents passengers with a clean and uncluttered interior space and ample space for their legs and hand luggage. Innovation like this has the potential to transform interior spaces as shown by the cantilever seat design and bike area used on the Alstom Coradia Stream for Trenitalia.
On the other hand, if innovations like cantilever seating are delivered purely as an engineering exercise without consideration of the design and human factor implications, opportunities to enhance the passenger experience can be lost. There were examples of this in a number of seats on show at Innotrans where the cantilever structure intruded into the window side passenger’s foot space. This, combined with carriage side heating, resulted in some horribly compromised foot well solutions.
