Colloquia

Samenvatting

The main objective of the project is to explore the future of the train door system from the perspective of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen(NS). The project explores possible design challenges and solutions for an autonomous train door system for the coming decades. An autonomous door system implies that there should be no direct involvement of NS operators in the operation of the train door system under normal circumstances. In addition to the train door itself the project covers the surrounding of the train door, including the train platform, train interior and the users. A focal point of the project is the interaction between the train door system and the train’s passengers with the intention to improve safety and the prevention of delays. Through research into the past, present and future setting of the train door system various challenges for the future train door system design have been identified. Subsequently, various design solutions for the identified challenges of the future train door system are presented and compared in the project.

This research project is split into three distinguishable sections, the past, the present and the future setting of the train door system. Each section explains the setting and discusses the challenges that emerge from the setting. The past covers the evolution of the train door systems used up till the present-day train door systems and is mainly analysed through the use of desk research. For the present-day setting, a combination of passenger interviews, observation, expert opinions, statistics and research papers is used to assess the situation. In order to determine the future setting three different visions for the year 2040 have been composed. Research papers, roadmaps, expert opinions, trends, statistics and regulations in combination with a designer’s perspective have been used to compose three unique future scenarios. Each of the three future scenarios focuses on different aspects of the future for the train operation in order to explore a wide range of possible challenges that the future train door system can encounter.  

There are several unique designs for the train, and the train door system, that have been formed during the project. Each of the designs focuses on one of the settings of the future scenarios presented in the research part. However, due to the unlikelihood of the incorporation of the complete train door design in future NS projects the features present in the designs are also presented and discussed individually. As result, a variety of stand-alone features is explained and compared in a concise overview.