A world of services for passengers Improvement of lighting ambience on board trains : experimental results on the combined effect of light parameters and seat colours on perception

For the time being, lighting specifications for train interiors include only functional parameters of illuminance (level and uniformity) and standards are more oriented on security than on comfort target. Since three years now, SNCF has developed a research program on visual comfort in order to better understand customer's perception and expectations about lighting ambience and improve specifications for new trains and refurbishing for existing ones. The paper presents experimental results on the combined effect of light parameters and seat colours on passengers’ perception. The results confirmed thus obtained from commercial inquiries concerning the illuminance levels which are perceived as too high. Our results show that if a level <150 Lux is proposed, the lighting ambience is perceived as relaxing and soft while it is perceived as glaring, aggressive and tiring if the illuminance is >200 Lux which is usually the case in actual train interiors.