Tyne and Wear Metro is the UK’s busiest light rail network outside London. In 2016, the trains running the network needed replacement after nearly 40 years of service and Nexus – the public body who run the publicly owned metro – commissioned a public consultation to ask people what they wanted in new trains. Nexus approached Open Lab to run more exploratory and digitally-enabled consultation activities within this consultation to complement more traditional surveys and interviews, and focus groups used elsewhere.
I devised and led Open Lab’s part of the consultation, centred around four co-design workshops with public participants from which issues and ideas were shared for further comment at ‘pop-up labs’ in busy public locations and on a bespoke website. Our consultation used technology in ways that were novel for a public transport consultation at the time including: capturing and reflecting upon journey experiences using mobile phones, sharing issues and ideas using video, and encouraging online discussion of developing findings. Our consultation was also devised to ensure that those likely to be most affected by design features of the new trains (wheelchair users, older people, people with low vision, parents and carers with pushchairs etc.) were heard within the consultation. The findings from Open Lab’s part of the consultation were a central part of the overall findings and went on to inform the requirements for the new trains. This consultation was so successful that Open Lab alone was invited to lead a subsequent consultation in 2020.
Read an article about the project. View the project documentary and video findings.