Student designs 'office on rails' for busy travellers

A pioneering Northumbria University student has invented cutting-edge ‘office on rails’ train carriages to allow business class passengers to hold meetings while travelling.

Lewis Cunningham, a final year Design for Industry student has created the train carriage compartments to enable passengers to work and conduct business meetings in between destinations.

Lewis produced the ‘Business First’ range after conducting research on a national UK train company.

The design is aimed at creating a workable rail alternative to business air travel so that the disadvantage of slower train travelling time is mitigated by the ability to work effectively during the journey.

The range of work-friendly features include individual computer workstation cubicles, micro-boardrooms, suit and coat hangers and an increase in communal luggage space.

Business-First was designed to fulfill the brief to entice more businesses to choose rail for their future travel needs.

Lewis, 22, from Ferryhill in County Durham, said: “Recent studies have shown that nine out of 10 businesses opt towards air travel over rail and, while emissions from air travel are significantly higher than those of rail, environmental concerns alone are yet to convince many businesses to change their travel habits.

“To offer a viable alternative, the rail environment must be developed to offer clear advantages when seeking to maximise productivity during a journey rather than solely focusing on the reduction of travel times.

“Business-First provides a newly developed carriage interior designed to cater for the unique needs of the worker on the go.”

Lewis’s designs, which runs with the slogan, ‘Why waste a day travelling when you can achieve time travel with Business-First?,’ will be on display, alongside those of fellow final year Design students, at the REVEAL: Design show from June 20.

The show is part of the wider Festival of the North East and will run alongside the University’s REVEAL: Arts and REVEAL: Media shows.

Renowned for producing the best new designers Northumbria Design has alumni working for River Island, Abercrombie and Fitch, Apple, Mars, Habitat, Phillips, BBC and Nokia to name a few.

Work will be on show from across the Design programmes, including Fashion, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, Animation, Design for Industry and Transportation Design.

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