TDI - Passenger Rail Vehicle Design and Styling

Transport Design International (TDI) is a transport design company specialising in the interior design and exterior styling of passenger vehicles, including railway rolling stock and marine vessels.

With design teams based in both Sydney, Australia, and Stratford, UK, TDI carefully monitors international trends in transport vehicle design, particularly in relation to styling, use of materials, user-interface design and ergonomics. Our two design studios are in constant dialogue and share workload on fast-track projects. In effect, our clients have access to a 24-hour office providing excellent response times and a large pool of design expertise.

Customised rolling stock and vessel design services

Since 1988 TDI has completed an extensive range of commissions in Australia, Asia and Europe. Our senior designers and engineers have international experience delivering effective and rapid transport design services and vehicle designs tailored to meet client interests. Our clients range from operators of transport systems, to manufacturers and component suppliers.

The fields in which we work enable us to transfer design ideas and technology. Our scope of work includes passenger rolling stock for metro and inter-city transportation, high-speed long-distance rolling stock, marine pleasure boats (both power and sail), and automotive and personal transportation products.

Key examples of this work include designs for KCRC Westrail carriages, NSW 4GT Millennium train, Queensland Rail tilt train, New Zealand Kiwi Rail Matangi EMUs for Wellington, Hyundai-Rotem Marmaray Line metro carriages for Istanbul and, the Hyundai-Rotem Athens Attiko Metro Series III carriages.

TDI prides itself on being able to offer its clients world-class, innovative design solutions which equal the world's best for aesthetic design, accessibility, comfort, and safety.

The designers at TDI understand manufacturing technologies and engineering requirements. We work closely with our clients' in-house manufacturing engineers to provide documentation suitable for manufacture within the performance constraints provided by our clients.

Rolling stock designed to meet disability needs and human factors

In both areas of personal vehicle design and public transportation, a high level of human factors analysis and design is essential. Efficiency, health and safety, the operation of equipment under stressful conditions, and the design of equipment and vehicles to meet the needs of all are key aspects of our work.

We develop transport solutions to enable special user groups, the aged, sight impaired, hearing impaired and disabled, to use public equipment and transportation with confidence and ease.

TDI also specialises in the development of user interface (U/I) solutions. This is achieved by gathering information and working closely with selected professional partners and user groups in order to create and evaluate solutions which comply with national and international standards.

Double-deck passenger trains design

With interiors and exterior design by TDI, the 4GT Millennium double-deck passenger train and the new OSCAR carriage operate on the Sydney suburban rail network. Key features that TDI introduced into the design of these world-class trains are distinctive front-end styling, large open-interior spaces, a fresh interior colour palette, a unique anti-graffiti seat fabric pattern, and advanced disability solutions.

The project involved interior and exterior styling, user-interface testing and the production of a full-scale mock-up by TDI.

EMU interior styling, exterior styling and 3-D flythrough animation

Designed by TDI, Matangi single-deck electric multiple units (EMUs) will be built in Korea by Hyundai-Rotem and will operate out of Wellington, New Zealand. The project involved interior and exterior styling and the supply of a 3-D flythrough animation.

Features of the new design include an innovative multipurpose area for increased accessibility for disabled passengers and a seat fabric design that is derived from tradition Maori decorative art.