Midland Mainline Meridian Intercity 2001

Midland Mainline’s customers were telling them that they were receiving higher levels of service and comfort on airplanes, at motorway service stations and in their cars. They also knew that their staff wanted an environment that they could work in comfortably and practically. Rather than just buying new trains, Midland Mainline decided to design them from the inside out.

Once Seymourpowell were appointed to the job, the huge scale of strategic planning for the whole operation became apparent, both in terms of creating a deliverable schedule and creating the manpower and space to house such a large-scale project. By immediately forming a dedicated project team to take the scheme from design to development to production, and through operating outside the normal Seymourpowell offices, – within 19th century railway arches (giving the team enough space to built entirely full-size mock-ups of the train, vital for a project of this scope and stature) – we successfully delivered the design of the brand new Meridian train for Midland Mainline on a tight timescale (from clean sheet to full-scale mock up in six months).

"Seymourpowell have got a belief and a conviction in what they do. They are designers who want to design good quality products that are practical and easy to use. Their attention to detail is phenomenal; they understand the importance of the smallest detail."
Malcolm Brown, Customer Services Director, Midland Mainline

Competing with cars and planes
Following in-depth consumer research and work with the in-house brand team, the interior theme was defined as being closer to a relaxed modern hotel than a train. Ambitious targets were set for the quality of all aspects of the interior in terms of facilities, comfort and safety. The Seymourpowell team undertook many working sessions with everyone involved in the project and its future users – from train drivers and cleaners to crew and maintenance.

"Their input was really useful", explained project director Nick Talbot. "They identified problems with previous trains and encouraged the inclusion of many new details. For example, the onboard refreshments crew asked for the inclusion of a floor pip, which you can’t see unless you really look for it, that opens the door automatically for them by treading on it, so that they no longer have to stop their trolleys and push the button to open the door."

Design Deliverables
The team delivered a full set of digital surfaces, together with a full-scale facsimile mock up, with the design successfully meeting all safety, legal and manufacturing requirements, allowing rapid progress by Bombardier to detailed engineering. The use of a real model allowed every change to the CAD model to be verified from both a visual and an ergonomic viewpoint, as well as providing a real ‘canvas’ for all the fabric and colour palettes, also designed and co-ordinated by Seymourpowell. Each component of the finished mock-up interior was machined from data, then shipped to Bombardier for assembly at the Bruges plant, allowing for optimum interface-checking, as the components were then built into a production steel carriage body.

For the exterior treatment, the overwhelming design concept was to create a strong sense of ‘locomotive’, although all exterior designs also have to work within very strict guidelines governing crash structures, vision lines and the layout of the driver’s cab. For the interiors, particular attention was paid to comfort, including the creation of optimum ergonomic seating and increased seating capacity (compared to theTurbostar predecessor) as well as to creating a more emotional ‘atmosphere’. Innovative use of lighting for example, helping to increase a sense of spaciousness with a side-projected main lighting system, completely integrated into the luggage racks, that both increases headroom and promotes a more inviting atmosphere.

The first Meridian train, for clients Midland Mainline and HSBC and manufactured and engineered by Bombardier Transportation in Bruges, one of twenty-three Class 222 diesel-electric Midland Mainline Meridian trains, which will gradually replace the existing fleet of 'Turbostar' trains, providing both extra capacity and improved reliability for the operator – and answering customer needs for an improved travel environment.