Renovation of existing fleets can offer a wide range of possibilities, emphasised Neil Bates, director of Creactive Design, in his presentation to the Golden Spanners conference.
Creactive’s aims are to help businesses succeed through innovation, sector experience, customer knowledge, design and engineering. The company works across a broad range of sectors, and engages in projects where it feels it can add value. Renovation of rolling stock forms a significant part of this, but Mr Bates said that in this area there needs to be a degree of common sense realisation – proposals need to be commercial, realistic and deliverable.
Research has shown that four of the top five ‘mature’ rolling stock renovation requirements from customers are seat related, covering legroom, comfort and cleanliness, shoulder room and seat width; the fifth is air conditioning. Other common adjectives occurring in lists of customers’ wants are better, cleaner and spacious, while reliable Wi-Fi and charging points are also a key priority.
SIX LEVELS
Mr Bates said Creactive has established a formula that works and gave an overview of what the company defines as six levels of renovation: replace; refresh; incrementally improve; enhance; innovate; and reposition.
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