By Karin BendixenFotos: The Oerestad Development Corporation

User tests form the basis for the development and design of Copenhagen’s new Metro train

Constant attention was focused on the needs of the passengers during the development of Copenhagen’s new Metro train, whose design and development were based on user tests. The point to be emphasised was that people who get around on their own in everyday life should also be able to do so in the underground system: train, platforms and stations.

"If at all possible, disabled people should be able to use the Metro without assistance," says Morten Søndergaard, one of the Project Managers in Oerestadsselskabet (the Oerestad Development Corporation. Ed.), the billion Danish Kroner project which will ensure that Copenhagen’s citizens will be transported quickly and safely through their capital from 2002.

No extra cost...

"No extra cost is involved in thinking – and in "thinking in" – Design for All, as long as it is done from the start. Consequently, foreign suppliers were involved at an early stage, to make sure that technical requirements as well as user demands were integrated into the design work from the start," says Morten Søndergaard. He further describes the close co-operation between designers, technicians, architects and, not least, the users as "an optimum between design and technique".

The foreign suppliers are Italian train manufacturers Ansaldo Trasporti, who manufactured the Copenhagen underground train in close co-operation with the design firm Giugiaro Design, while Denmark’s Carl Bro De-sign laid down the outline framework before the Italian partners went to work.

Passenger tests

Prior to putting out the call for tenders for the contract, the Oerestad Development Corporation entered into a dialogue with some of the Danish disabled people’s organisations.

Meanwhile, Carl Bro Design undertook various types of passenger test. Train design is nothing new to Carl Bro Design, as the studio already designed the Danish IC3 train and Copenhagen’s new S-train.

"We wanted to clarify elements such as door widths, size of seats, seat sections, principles of arrangement and the positioning of knobs and handles before the contract was put up for tender," comments Morten Søndergaard.

Passengers with prams, bicycles and luggage, and children, visually impaired persons, wheelchair users, walking-impaired persons and others with impaired hearing all took part in the tests, whose results combined with the technical specifications enabled simple sketches and descriptions of the layout to be drawn up for inclusion in the contract documents.

At a later stage, Giugiaro Design supplied a full-scale model with a view to testing the convenience of get-ting on and off the train, determining patterns of movement and positioning of handles in the train. By that time, it was also possible to test various ideas for solutions, to compare functions and to evaluate the aesthetics, as well as to identify appropriate methods for cleaning and maintaining the rolling stock.

Conflicting needs

According to Henrik Priess Christensen M.Sc., Industrial Designer and Architect and Design Manager at Carl Bro Design, in charge of co-ordinating the entire process and the passenger tests, it was not always possible to meet the demands of all user groups. The demands of differently disabled people may be quite conflicting.

To illustrate his point, Christensen mentions the underground train’s spacious flex areas, which leave plenty of free space for the benefit of wheel-chair users. But for visually impaired and blind people, these become "inaccessible" areas which may conceal people with unexpected luggage, prams or bicycles. Visually impaired and blind people therefore need handrails to ”guide” them from the door through the train to the seats.

Various types of passenger tests were run before calling for tenders

The missing grab bar

A panel of disabled people is still following the project. According to Henrik Priess Christensen, this has many advantages. At one time, for example, the panel was presented with the knobs and grab bars in the train, and on this very occasion it turned out that one grab bar had been eliminated during the design process. The bar in question was retrieved – in this case at no high cost, comments Christensen.

The incident shows that if accessible solutions are to be implemented subsequently they may end up being costly and complicated. Missing handrails would have to go into production and then be integrated into the existing set-up, which may not have been prepared for it and may therefore need reinforcement.

"Many problems can be anticipated if all the parties concerned are involved at an early stage in the design phase and if the specifications of all the requirements are well described – but they have to be realistic as well," concludes Morten Søndergaard.

Facts

The new underground, known colloquially as the Metro, will be serving Frederiksberg, the city of Copenhagen itself and Amager – as well as Oerestad, Copenhagen’s future New Town.

Length: 21 kilometres of line. 10 kilometres run in tunnels and 11 kilometres on elevated track or embankment, on the surface or in railway cuttings.

Stations: Nine underground and eight above ground.

Trains: The Metro train is fully automatic, unmanned except for a Metro steward.

Passengers: 300 in total per train. Seats for 96 and standing room for 204. 250,000 persons are expected to use the Metro each day.

Timetable: Trains will run round the clock. During rush hours, the trains will run at 11.2-3 minute intervals. During the night the intervals will be 15 minutes.

Financial aspects: The cost of construction of the Metro, calculated in 1999 prices, is 7 billion Danish Kroner. (933 million Euros).

Time schedule: The first phase becomes operational in 2002, the second phase in 2003 and the third phase in 2004.

Two construction projects come under the umbrella of the Oerestad Development Corporation: the development of the town of Oerestad itself and the underground system.

The Oerestad Development Corporation was established in 1993 by the City of Copenhagen and the Danish state. The two projects Oerestad and the underground were set up together with the decision to create the Fixed Link (the bridge-tunnel-bridge across the Oeresund to Sweden, which is due to be opened in June 2000). The purpose was to boost the development of Copenhagen and to identify the city as centre of the Oerestad Region.

Published in Crisp & Clear No. 1, April 2000