What will future passengers want from a railway? This has been an ongoing question for High Speed Two (HS2), whose first passengers will take their first journey in ten years’ time.

On the surface, it is easy to imagine that the needs of the passenger today will be the same as thosein the future. While this may be the case for some priorities such as punctuality and value for money, it is difficult to grasp what other future requirements might be. You only need to think about growth of the smart phone over the last nine and a half years (the iPhone will turn ten next June) and suddenly it becomes hard to imagine what might deem to be a ‘necessity’ in the future.

Of course, this is the challenge any large scale infrastructure programme faces. While design can be flexible, some decisions do need to be made early on in the process. One of the ways HS2 is trying to find out the needs of future passenger was to set up a passenger panel which we have managed on its behalf.

Our HS2 passenger panel is now in its third year and we continue to be amazed by the level of engagement our panel has for this project. With over 90 tasks completed on a wide variety of topics from the design of a train seat to landscaping, the panel has provided HS2 with a large depth of knowledge to draw upon.

We have created a Prezi presentation which highlights one key finding from each stage of the passenger journey from the first two years of the panel.

To watch this Prezi, which also includes a video of our passenger panel, please click here (it may take a few minutes to download before streaming).

All the findings from the first year can be found here.