Exterior Design of Train Cars
A pivotal moment in a train rider's journey is the moment when customers who are waiting for a train first sense that their train is arriving. At that moment, they may see the headlights, they may feel a whoosh of air, or they may hear the horn. For some riders, the arrival is a moment of anticipation about the place they are going, a feeling that they will soon be on their way to a destination that is important to them. For other riders, it's a moment of relief from anxiety or uncertainty about when the train will come. Even if they feel confident in the accuracy of real time information predicting when the train will arrive, the actual arrival of the train is a welcome confirmation.
How else is it a pivotal moment? It's also a moment when the appearance of the front face of the train registers an indelible brand impression. Does the train look solid? Or does it look like it is cobbled together? Does the train look friendly or does it seem cold and indifferent? Does the train look safe and reliable, or does it look menacing and brawny?
The face of a train can influence how riders feel about their experience on your system, so it is smart to be intentional about designing it to convey a feeling that helps riders feel good about their experience. Do you want customers to feel confident? Do you want them to feel relaxed? Do you want them to feel an emotional affinity to your brand?
Exterior Design of Train Cars
If your system is planning to engage a company to manufacture new train cars, socialize the idea of intentional design with leadership and talk with them about the opportunity to stand out relative to other transit agencies. If you get a green light, start with a creative brief that defines the feeling you'd like the train face to evoke. Also, review your brand strategy and think about how the design of the train face could build emotional affinity for your brand. Are there iconic colors or shapes that riders associate with your brand? Are there elements of the culture in your region or classic designs from the past that the new cars could evoke?
Also look at train faces from around the world and think about how they make riders feel.
Are you looking for a design that looks like it glides along effortlessly and conveys an easy-going feeling, ...
or are you looking for something more nostalgic, that evokes a glorious past?
Are you looking for something that feels professional and dependable ....
Or something that feels welcoming and comfortable?
Do you want something that evokes the effortless motion of a snake?
Or perhaps the wisdom of an owl?
Or maybe an astronaut?
Or maybe the large forehead of a dolphin?
Another part of the design process is to design in harmony with practical constraints, so it is essential to take stock of constraints at the onset. For example:
Will the basic shape of the cab be an off-the-shelf product, or will it be designed from scratch?
If designed from scratch, what structural elements will the cab need to meet crash safety requirements? Will it need vertical posts in certain locations, for example?
Will the cab cars always be positioned at the start of the train? Or will they sometimes be positioned mid-train, requiring couplers to connect to the car in front of it.
What cab doors are needed for passenger or employee use? For cars that are sometimes positioned mid-train, is a door needed at the front that enables riders and/or employees to walk to the next car?
For cars that are sometimes positioned mid-train, are inter-car barriers needed for the safety of people who are blind or sight impaired?
What range of vision is needed for the employees who operate the train?
What design elements from the interior and sides of the trains should influence the design of the face?
Are there other considerations like wind resistance? Or material durability and ease of repair? or supply chain limitations?
Confer with engineers and manufacturers to generate a full list of practical issues, then integrate all your constraints and considerations into your creative brief so that designers have everything in one place when they start a creative process to design cars that convey what you want them to convey.
There are dozens of incredibly talented train car design firms around the world, and it is worthwhile to engage one through a competitive process. You can engage designers prior to issuing an RFP to car manufacturers or require manufacturers to engage a design firm as part of their scope of work. There are a variety of pros and cons to these two approaches. Feel free to reach out to me to discuss!
As the lead designer for BART's Fleet of the Future, I was able to work with some amazing industrial designers including Antenna Design, BMW Designworks, and Morelli Design. Design cost is significant, but only a tiny fraction of the cost for the project as a whole, so don't skimp on the design. Engage a single designer for all aspects of your train cars, so that you end up with one coherent design.
Your designers can play with shapes, depth, color, transparency, shading, lighting, and other elements. They can also play with headlights, windows, your agency logo, and other brand elements. Ultimately, have your designers create multiple concepts for your consideration and produce renderings showing how each design concept looks from various angles in daylight and at night. Review the design concepts with key stakeholders - especially riders! Don't forget to reach out to families with young children. Rail cars last many decades so this is a great chance to build excitement with your next generation of customers. Finally, reach out to employees for input as well. The look of a train can be a source of pride to employees and their families.
One key design challenge is to define a transition from the front of the cab to the side of the train that feels coherent and integrated, perhaps like this patriotic one:
Designers know how to use color and texture to create continuity from the cab face to the side body. The last thing you want is for the cab to feel like it is disconnected from the rest of the train. For example, here is a handsome design, but the misalignment of the side windows versus the front windshield might make it feel out of sorts.
At the same time, it's important to minimize paint or vinyl decals so you can reduce impacts on the environment.
Here is the final exterior design we created for BART. We were aiming for friendly, modern, and sleek, while keeping side decals to a minimum? How well did we hit the mark?
Here is an alternate photo that shows the new design side-by-side with the old cars we replaced. You may notice that the new car incorporates the trapezoidal window shape with soft corners from the old cars, which was an iconic element in the BART brand. We also customized the headlights to try to convey a relaxed happy feeling and recessed the ADA inter-car barriers when the cab is positioned at the front or back of a train. And we integrated into the design a front door and a coupler to accommodate operational needs.
If your system map distinguishes Lines by color, here is another design opportunity to consider: Your designers can assemble color LEDs into interesting shapes to display your Line colors. This is a concept we developed at BART, but ultimately did not include in the final product. Oher agencies though are beginning to go down this road, like MARTA in Atlanta, and it's a low-cost way to bring some extra pizzazz to your design.
In closing, train cars typically last many decades, so procurements don't come around very often. But when they do, make the most of it! It's an opportunity to reinforce a good feeling among your customers when the train arrives.
For more information about customer-centric car design, including the design of train interiors, read my blog post: CX and Train Car Design.