A questionnaire was developed for use with a large ~pte of passengers travelling in British Rail stock on a cross-section of main line rou~serviced by London Midland Region. The questionnaire was distribu~ to a stratified random sample of 1500 passengers -covering both male and female travellers in five different carriage types. The aim of the study was to determine the improvements passengers would most like to see in existing carriage design, and generally what they felt about the quality of their environment. The questionnaire included sections covering personal and travel details, a check list of conceivable improvements, and the use of the semantic differential technique for obtaining passengers' impressions and perceptions. The findings allowed comparisons to be made between the different carriage interiors and resulted in recommendations for the possible modification of certain carriage designs.
With the introduction of newly designed rolling stock into the British Rail Inter-City network, older main-line carriages are redeployed onto secondary routes. At this stage there is an opportunity to modify the older carriages in readiness for their new role. With this in mind, British Rail (London Midland Region) commissioned the Department of Occupational Psychology to carry out an evaluation of user opinions in relation to train carriage design. The aims of the study were to determine passengers' perceptions of their carriage environment, and to discover what improvements they would most like to see.
In order to investigate the views of the 'typical' British Rail traveller, a small pilot study was undertaken. Both 1 st and 2rid class passengers were interviewed during several different train journeys. Questions covered such points as likes and dislikes of travel by train, and attitudes towards particular carriage types. When asked about rail travel in general terms, passengers commented not only on the carriage design itself, but also on such aspects as time keeping and catering facilities. It became clear that the railway system should be studied as a whole. For example, in considering facilities available on a train it is necessary to look at these in the context of journey length, and the stations involved. However, the research brief precluded such a strategy, and this study was concerned solely with the facilities and the environment of railway carriages.