The passenger connection
MIKE MULDOON, Head of Strategy for Alstom UK and Ireland, tells PAUL STEPHEN how the company has invested heavily in helping operators deliver a seamless, high-quality passenger experience
How Alstom is helping TOCs improve the passenger experience.
As people travel more and more, but increasingly expect a higher end-to-end service, the entire rail industry must ask itself: how can it accommodate rising demand for rail travel while enhancing the passenger experience?
New and upgraded station facilities must carefully try and strike this balance in addition to intelligent rolling stock design, in order to consistently leave passengers with a positive impression of their journey from start to finish.
For train manufacturers, rolling stock owners (ROSCOs), operators (TOCs) and the rest of the supply chain, this means that designs for new trains must skilfully bring together technical performance, safety and capacity, and aesthetics, comfort and functionality. Chiefly, for the latter, this means digital connectivity, in an age where the appetite for internet access and information continues to grow exponentially.
Given that the expected asset life of a new train is typically more than 30 years, there is also an added requirement, that once trains have left the production line they are able to meet or adapt to the rapidly changing and often unpredictable future needs of the passengers that will use them.
Alstom understands these essential but often conflicting requirements well, having built up an unrivalled understanding of what operators from across the globe need to do to deliver exemplary journey satisfaction to the passengers they serve.
The company’s experienced design teams therefore not only consider how best to facilitate passengers’ current work and leisure requirements, where WiFi has become the norm, but also how best to future-proof the internal fabric of the train to enable technical adaptations, and increase the scope for further enhancement during subsequent fleet refurbishments or overhauls.
Mike Muldoon, Head of Strategy for Alstom UK and Ireland explains: “It’s a question of obsolescence and changes to the world around us, and this is something we consider a high priority. If we were to look at the High Speed Train, for example, the only thing on them that is still a current connection device is probably a three-pin plug socket, as it is the only device to span the entire life of the train since they were first introduced in 1976.
“Trains have a design life of several decades, so the technologies we fit need to be as flexible and capacious as possible so they can accommodate future demand. We want to be able to develop things that meet the changing expectations of passengers, even though they fit into a whole different product development cycle from the train itself.
“Our concern is for the health of all users and where the aim is to value every moment of the journey, contribute to well-being, reduce stress and enhance the travel experience.
“Since creation is at the heart of innovation, at Alstom passenger experience is developed in a collaborative way, gathering engineering, design and marketing teams. We focus on innovative solutions that will have a direct impact on the travel perception, such as intelligent glazing, mood lighting that respects human physiology, augmented passenger information, and services and products linked to the train system and the city.”
Alstom has consistently demonstrated that its trains routinely fulfil these criteria - for example, its Class 373 fleet introduced by Eurostar in November 1994. Demonstrating the versatility of the original production
People no longer expect to be given the basics, but a quality service. Mike Muldoon, Head of Strategy, Alstom UK and Ireland
platform, eight of these trains are currently undergoing extensive refurbishment, including brighter and lighter interiors, and increased digital integration through the installation of WiFi equipment and power sockets throughout, plus USB charging points in First Class.
These amenities may now be well established on new trains, but their addition to the ‘e300s’ should be seen as all the more impressive on a train built many years before Apple launched its iPhone in 2007, and the subsequent rise in the number of seemingly ubiquitous mobile devices requiring wireless connectivity.
Muldoon adds: “The Class 373s are a classic example that modernisation is as good an opportunity for older products, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be an all-new train to apply this knowledge and development. The embedded systems need to be well thought through to adjust or change, but you can continue to develop these products over the train’s life.
“The ‘373’ shows what can be done, and that there is scope to reinvigorate it with refurbishments. A significant overhaul was not necessarily something that was designed for many years ago, but it’s something that Alstom’s design approach facilitates.”
Over two decades later, and the same care has been taken in the development of Alstom’s latest generation of main line transport solutions, including its Avelia high-speed and very high-speed range, and Coradia regional range.
The latter was launched for the UK market at the Railtex trade show held at the NEC, Birmingham in May ( RAIL 827), where Alstom demonstrated that the 125mph electric multiple unit (EMU) is available in a number of formations, and fully customisable internally to meet the bespoke needs of any operator for their first use, but also so that ROSCOs can maximise their potential for any future deployment.
“Our new EMU is very much a state-ofthe-art product for the UK,” says Muldoon, “while our Avelia product platform also embraces all the latest technologies, as you’d expect. As a technical package, both trains represent the latest design and technological developments, but from a practical point of view it is all configurable internally. It allows us to enhance the passenger experience beyond just sitting on the train to something completely different.
“Very often, we will be asked: ‘What facilities can you provide on the train that will enhance the passenger experience?’ It’s a very broad question but it’s obvious that people want to complete their journeys with minimal disruption to their lifestyles. As a result, we see the huge demand for WiFi, for example, because our lifestyles are so closely linked to our hand-held devices.
“But there is a significant proportion of the population who might not want to use smartphones, and they still need to be given passenger information. That’s where individuality comes in, and there is flexibility in the layout for people to interact more with the vehicle. We can offer an enormous range of options.”
Alstom’s belief is that innovation should never be about technology for technology’s sake, and so it proactively works in close partnership with operators and passenger groups to identify passengers’ main needs, in order to provide the solutions of highest value to them.
To aid the process, Alstom applies a hierarchy of needs to ensure its trains
provide truly competitive differentiators for operators, and the greatest added value possible to the end-user.
“The UK market is very sophisticated and we have a growing and strong market for rail, which means growing expectations from passengers. People no longer expect to be given the basics, but a quality service.
“We say that there are three levels of passenger experience. There is the basic level that you need to get from A to B in a safe manner, which is the bare minimum. Then there’s level 2, which is when you develop your service, make a promise to the passenger and then fulfil it. It eventually becomes a ‘taken for granted’ level, but it ensures a good and comfortable service.
“Finally, level 3 is where you’ve really got to develop the experience by going beyond what people would typically expect, to win passenger loyalty. This is where we come in with our operator offering. We can give them the products to help them achieve that third level.
“As the train manufacturer our role is to provide the underpinnings of the excellent service the operator wants to provide. Sometimes this makes drawing the line between what we design and what the operator implements (via its staff, its online tools or its apps, and so on) using our design difficult to define. We are facilitators not the service deliverers and so we always aim to collaborate as closely as possible with the operators and be able to offer our development options, plus the chance to talk to our teams for as long as possible in the design process.”
Alstom also practises the principle that improving the passenger experience goes well beyond just offering WiFi, and should start before departure from when a passenger leaves their front door or buys their tickets. Passengers appreciate predictability and operators must be in a position to offer relevant information, to keep rail ahead of other modes of transport. This information could include live departure information and taxi availability at their destination, to where passengers should stand on a platform in order to board a less busy part of the train.
Non-passenger-facing technologies such as remote online condition monitoring can also improve the passenger experience with powerful capabilities like automatically reporting a malfunctioning toilet, to ensure it is speedily repaired and remains in service. All these are options covered by Alstom’s comprehensive operator proposition.
“The passenger will talk about their entire journey, and we offer a number of on- and off-train products that can be provided to the operator to improve the overall journey. We have autonomous vehicles in development that can assist with the last mile to their door, and we have platform information systems that can get them to the right part of the train.
“We have products that will allow integration with all forms of transport in a particular area, and a portfolio that expands beyond the train to interact with the endcustomer, and offer whatever the operator wants to provide.”
As technology continues to smooth passengers’ journeys, what is next for datahungry consumers?
Muldoon says that future fleets could feature more advanced passenger information systems that deliver personalised information throughout the journey. The rapid development of connectivity technologies could also have benefits for increased personal safety.
He concludes: “I was recently on a Virgin West Coast (Class 390) Pendolino when a young lad told his mum that the train was very futuristic and felt like the inside of a plane, but can you imagine if, as the train moved off, the window provided a running commentary of what he was looking at? You could embed a display in the window that shows points of interest. That technology already exists but, obviously, it’s all down to the operator.
“There is also the whole thing about the insecurity that people feel around their journey. They are perhaps most insecure about leaving their bag at their seat when going to the toilet, or walking down the train to the buffet car. One of the technologies we offer is a system to lock your bag, connected to a smartphone. We’ve done a lot of work around making people feel more secure.
“What all these things come down to is making the best use of emerging technologies to build a closer relationship between the operator and passenger to improve the overall experience.”
It’s obvious that people want to complete their journeys with minimal disruption to their lifestyles. Mike Muldoon, Head of Strategy, Alstom UK and Ireland