Activities, postures and comfort perception of train passengers as input for train seat design

AbstractWorking in the train is a part of new ways of working. However, the ideal working position is unknown. Moreover, the ideal position for leisure and relaxing is also unknown. This article defines what activities train passengers mainly perform and which corresponding postures are seen. Based on the observations on actual train rides, four main activities could be identified: Reading, Staring/sleeping, Talking and Working on laptop. Working on laptop was the activity with the longest duration and talking had the shortest duration. Associated with these four activities, a top eight of different postures were observed. Except for headrest comfort, comfort scores were not significantly different between activities. The top eight corresponding postures combined with comfort scores showed that per activity different postures were observed and the comfort scores varied in relation to the combination of posture and activity. Nearly for all activities, the majority of passengers preferred adjustability options to fit the seat to the performed activity.AbstractPractitioner Summary: The article is created for insight into activities, postures and comfort of seated train passengers. The results of this study can be used for designing comfortable seating in the transportation industry (train passengers, bus and aircraft seats) and for semi-public spaces to enable optimal support for the user in its activities.Keywords:: train passenger comfortactivitiesposturesseat design AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank SNCF for enabling this study and for the successful cooperation. Many thanks as well to Valérian Courtaux and Hugo Marcus for their support with collection of observational and questionnaire data.