Hitachi Rail fleets featuring DCA interiors ranked highly for reliability

DCA are pleased to see that Hitachi Rail’s Class 800 Series and Class 395 fleets featured strongly in the latest UK reliability charts, taking 4 of the top 10 positions.

We worked closely with the Hitachi Rail team on the development of the 1st and Standard Class passenger interiors for both these trains, as well as the driver’s cab for the Class 800 Series. Our work on the Class 800 Series was considered ground-breaking and resulted in the publication of two academic papers – one on task analysis for drivers and the other on direct and reflected glare assessment in the cab.

The quality of our work was recognised by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in America who described our work as “exemplary” and presented DCA and Hitachi with their User-Centred Product Design Award for the Class 800 cab and train interiors at the end of 2015 – the first time that this has been awarded to organisations outside America. The work was also presented as a keynote lecture at the UK Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors annual conference.