TAKE a look around you. If you're reading this on a train, make sure you look really carefully then consider the following. What are the differences, if any, between a long-distance passenger coach today and one 50 years ago? Have the design and layout changed at all? Think for a moment about the first open saloons that appeared in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Are the coaches any different? Not really. They are still basically the same. Yet, if we are honest, is this sameness what the passenger--your customer--really wants?

The problem with public transport is its "publicness". Privacy is desirable, sacred even. We like privacy. Your customers like privacy. After all, they have privacy in their cars.

Airlines have been quick to respond to this. When British Airways (BA) invented its first-class passenger cubicle, it was a great success. When BA then transferred it to business class, once again it was a great success. BA was in the process of converting all of its long-haul aircraft to this configuration when September 11 put the kybosh on it. Now that air traffic is slowly picking up, the airlines are once again moving towards privacy.

Privacy is something that the railways always used to have. If you were rich, you were able to afford your own private compartment in the sleeping car. If you were bold, you simply laid out your coat, gloves, and papers on the other five seats in the compartment. With a bit of luck, aided by a challenging staring technique, you got your privacy. The irony is that the concept of privacy and the individual compartment has arrived in the air, but has been abandoned on the railways.
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At Design Triangle, we have conceived a single passenger private compartment for trains. A single compartment can be transformed into double or quadruple units merely by swinging the screens around. The flick of a switch can offer total privacy for all passengers. Another solution is a much more enclosed seat which envelopes the passenger.

Inevitably, there is then a demand for these cosy passenger environments to be packed with electric and electronic equipment, LED adjustable reading lights, laptop computer connections, music channels, and video screens.

Video screens are already appearing as add-ons in trains. In the Heathrow Express trains, these screens were an integrated part of the design fight from the start in order to communicate news and passenger information.

Seamless public information and entertainment can be irritating so, if it is installed, it is important that the customer can control it as they would in their own car or home.

Privacy is therefore what the public transport consumer wants. These private seats or cubicles could simultaneously also solve the invasive nature of mobile phones. We do not want to hear other people using their phones but naturally we want to use our own. Soundproofed headrests, electromagnetic exclusion fields or whatever we invent and successfully develop will have to solve the problem.

Imagining the future is easy. The challenge lies in creating an interior which looks as attractive and comfortable after five years of heavy use as it did on day one. This is what the ideal interior should do and this is where the difference starts showing between imaginative creation and industrial design.

When the Heathrow Express trains were designed, they were the first trains to be specified according to stringent British regulations on fire resistance and flame spread and also smoke and toxic fumes.

The design objectives set by the excellent Heathrow Express marketing team were also unique and ambitious. Heathrow Express should not look like an ordinary train; it had to appeal to airline passengers who were used to the design quality of airlines and their own luxury cars. Wild colours and patterns in moquette were out, as were hard seatbacks. Fully-upholstered seats in a flat-woven textile were the order of the day. The manufacturers of the seats and trim managed to rise to the challenge of these specifications. But it was not easy, particularly the fully upholstered seatback, which was non-negotiable as far as the marketing team was concerned.

The result was that both carpets and seat upholstery were pure wool and very soft, and not really able to stand up to the wear requirements. Right from the start, we knew that re-upholstery would be necessary after about five years.