The development of a new test standard regarding the Comfort and Durability of rail seating

25 November 2025 15:00 - 15:15

Comfort of a train seat, in fact any seat is often thought to be completely subjective. At FIRA International we have been studying the concept and perception of comfort especially for train seats. Over the last ten years, we have carried out a number of research projects some of which was for RSSB, in order to determine as many objective measures as we can to assess the comfort of train seats.

We now have a comfort assessment method which can reliably assess the passenger comfort and is able to differentiate comfort levels between different seats. For us another concern was the durability and life time of train seats and how this would affect the comfort of passengers over the years. We can fast track and simulate real use of train seats over a lifetime of , 5, 10 15 or more years and asses the durability of the train seats. After given intervals by carrying out comfort tests we are also able to determine if the seat comfort declines as the seat gets older and by how much. This test method is the core of the RSSB’s Assessment of Passenger Seat Comfort Document (GMGN2696: 2023). This comfort assessment method helps the designers to improve the comfort of their designs and the train operators to choose seat designs with a high comfort score to provide comfortable train journeys for their passengers.

Levent Caglar, Chief Ergonomist & Head of Ergonomics Unit, FIRA

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