RSSB2655 - T1140 - Rail Vehicle Seat Comfort - Supplier Engagement Event Friday 6th October

RSSB is holding a supplier engagement event on Friday 6th October at 2pm at the RSSB offices in Moorgate.

If you would like to attend please email the below email address by 5pm on Thursday 5th October: Shareditt@rssb.co.uk -- Passenger comfort during rail travel is an important aspect of the customer experience, and forms part of the rolling stock vision for comfortable and attractive train interiors (Rail Technical Strategy, 2012).

One key aspect of passenger comfort is the seat, and the comfort of the seating area may contribute up to 5% of the overall impact on customer satisfaction (National Rail Passenger Survey, 2016).

Recent passenger satisfaction scores also revealed that 72% of passengers (n = 25,541) reported satisfied or good level of comfort of the seating area (National Rail Passenger Survey, 2016).

Whilst such satisfaction scores appear promising, continuous improvement of customer satisfaction is a key object of the Rail Technical Strategy, under the theme of Customer Experience.

As guidance, a general target to achieve 90% passenger satisfaction levels by 2035 (not specific to seat comfort) was proposed in the Long Term Planning Ahead Framework (2010 ), and subsequently supported in the Rail Technical Strategy (RTS).

Clearly, improvements in seat comfort satisfaction scores may contribute to reaching this industry wide target.

However, currently there is a lack of quantifiable parameters available to sufficiently assess and demonstrate passenger seat comfort for new and refurbished trains, which risks overlooking customer experience.

A recent RSSB Knowledge Search (S240, 2016) on seat comfort revealed that while few measures exist to quantify passenger seat comfort, a standardised specification of seat comfort is yet to be established.

Moreover, the knowledge search findings indicated that current measures do not provide a minimum threshold value accounting for subjective tests of perception from the general public.

Subsequently, quantifying passenger seat comfort may build a predictive model to support Train Operating Companies (TOCs) & Rolling Stock Operating Companies (ROSCOs) to select cost-effective new and refurbished seats in line with the passenger experience.

Accordingly, the Rail Industry Vehicle/Vehicle System Interface Committee set up a Seat Comfort Group specifically to look at passenger seat comfort, and identified that the RDG Key Train Requirements (KTR) could benefit from specifying more information on passenger seat comfort.

In doing so, it is hoped that this research will impact improvements in seat quality and enhanced customer experience, while also facilitating innovation options and potential competition among TOCs to provide comfortable seating across the industry.