NID Ahmedabad students have designs on trains

Students in three groups look at ways to enhance commuter experience.

NID, NID students, NID ahmedabad, NID gujarat, NID railways, suresh prabhu, indian express ahmedabad, passenger-friendly design

Some design ideas from 15 NID students will be presented to the Railway Board this July. Express photo

Taking a local train may soon become a stress-free, seamless experience, with 15 NID students having mapped the journey to come up with passenger-friendly design interventions, a few of which will be presented to the Railway Board this July. The rail ministry had signed an MoU with NID last year to design passenger-friendly coaches and stations and give them a fresh lease of life. In line with this, NID faculty Praveen Nahar and Md Naim Shaikh held a Mainline Electric Multiple Unit or ‘MEMU live lab’ for 3rd year industrial and product design students who took journeys and mapped passenger-experience on MEMU trains that connect semi-urban and rural areas in India.
Students in three groups looked at ways to enhance commuter experience before boarding the train starting from buying tickets to onward journey inside the train and commuter experience after getting down at station to reaching home.

Aparajita Tiwari, a student, said, “We redesigned the current Automatic Ticket Vending Machine (ATVMs) and suggested it be manned by personnel so that more people use them and are less intimidated by the interface. Tickets can also print information on how long it is valid on which trains, the route and trains one can take back. The whole interface can be colour-coded so as to reduce the cognitive load on users. The vending machines should have slots for notes and coins and smart card and should be accessible in local language for easy use.”

[related-post]

Digital screens plying information on routes inside trains, toilets between every two compartments, bigger windows with an aluminium mesh to stop people from littering outside, a door with a rod in between to aid easy access and use of plastic and cloth on the metal handrails to avoid hand rails from becoming hot during summers were suggested by the young designers. “A communication system similar to a traffic signal can be developed on the platform. Commuters looking to get in can just look at signals that will show the availability of space inside a compartment. This can be done easily through employing heat sensing technology, cameras or face detection that will then send signals to a communication system located outside on the platform which can flash different colours signifying space availability,” said Gaurika Singhal, another student.

Addressing last mile connectivity need for passengers after alighting from a train, Jayneel Shah said, “MEMU can go for a multi-modal transport model to ferry the passenger home. A basic map showing the next station, transit system in that city/town, including buses, autos and cabs that one can take home can be shown at the back of the ticket. Through ‘guided wayfaring’ like having colour coded smart cards that are extended to involve local transport systems, railways can ensure that more people purchase these smart cards. This is similar to the transit system at San Francisco Bay (BART) and can be mixed with Indian elements.”

Md Naim Shaikh, studio in-charge of NID’s Railway Design Centre (RDC), said that many of these ideas will be fine-tuned and become part of the conceptual ideation proposals that will be presented to the Railway Board (Carriage & Civil dept) this July.

WATCH INDIAN EXPRESS VIDEOS HERE

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram

Tags:
nid