TRANSIT took note of the following design for the interior of a suburban Japanese train by designer Jun Yasumoto
This project was created in 2001 and we wonder what an updated version would look like, especially for our KTM Komuter service. Tell us what you think of the design by commenting below
New seating design
Adding the human dimension
According to Jun:
Suburban trains have the particularity to have strong occupancy variations throughout their trips, usually starting almost empty in the far suburbs, and ending heavily crowded as they approach the center of town. Thanks to this seating system, the train interior becomes reactive to its occupancy. Depending on how crowded the coach is, users can whether comfortably sit using the modules as armrests, or half-sit to make more space for others in very crowded situations.
bird’s eye view of train car (diagram)
Commute trips can be very repetitive. The train interior’s asymmetric lay-out enlarges the possibilities to vary the users’ positions and point of views while they travel, in addition to the flexibility offered by the seat modules’ functionalities. When not in use, the retracted seats offer more floor space and give a lighter and more spacious feeling to the train’s interior, making it also easier to circulate through the coach.
Layout of train interior
TRANSIT Says:
We are very interested in the different features of design of public transport, whether it is the exterior architecture of a station or the design of signage or the interior functionality of a train.
Jun Yasumoto’s design is interesting because it combines functionality with warmth. Other approaches to increasing the capacity of a train (such as the ones taken in Hong Kong and Singapore) simply involve removing seats – which is functionally fine but it creates a barren & cavernous feeling in that area of the train carriage.
Jun Yasumoto’s design does not really create that barren feeling and the flexibility encourages creative interaction between the passenger, the seat and the carriage…not to mention with other passengers.
Tell us what you think of the design by commenting below
Transit Malaysia 