Alstom signs contract to upgrade Jeddah Airport Innovia APM; faster, more reliable airport transit

Reading between the lines: passenger experience beyond the train | Alstom

Reading between the lines: passenger experience beyond the train

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Performance & Operations Passenger Experience

A good way to evaluate a transport system is to navigate it while dragging a suitcase. Do you see where you need to go? Is the route well lit? Do the screens provide useful information? If your trip is delayed, do you know what to do next? Is your environment working for you, or against you?

“The best compliment an operations team can receive is often silence. It means it’s all working well,” says Elodie Matignon, who oversees passenger experience once systems enter service.

We explored a few Journeys ago how we design our trains to soothe, then satisfy, then delight. We discussed design by omission: removing from our trains the little irritations passengers shouldn’t have to think about. But passenger experience doesn’t start when you board the train.

Why do some journeys feel… right? Designing experiences

The millions of men and women who ride in Alstom rolling stock each day may not consciously analyse the many details shaping their journey. But they feel them.

“I was on the metro a couple years ago with a friend. I actually worked on the design for that specific train,” explains Passenger Experience Director, Anne Bigand. “While I was explaining some of the finer points of the design, a passenger seated across from us said, “Excuse me. You designed this train? I just love riding it.”

“Why,’ I asked. ‘What about it do you like so much?’”

“I don’t know, exactly,” the woman said. “It’s just so comfortable. It feels like home.”

To Anne, this is the ultimate compliment.

“When you step into the station, that’s passenger experience . When you’re home, looking through your phone for the best itinerary, that’s passenger experience. When you buy your ticket, no matter what method you use, that’s passenger experience”, says Elodie. Your experience also stays with you even after you reach your destination. We all have that one line we love and that other line we dread.

“Most people know Alstom as a train manufacturer. What they often don’t realise is that in many places around the world, we also operate the systems that passengers use every day”, says Elodie.

Design focuses, among other things, on the experience of a seat, a door, a cabin or a station environment. Operations looks at how all those pieces behave once they meet the world arround them.

Just like good design, good operations remove friction: no confusion, no unnecessary waiting, no moment of doubt about where to go next. Passengers shouldn’t have to think about the system behind their journey. That invisibility is designed, operated, monitored and continuously improved.

A train has to be comfortable. It should be beautiful. It must be accessible, connected and intuitively designed. But the moment the train enters service, it joins something much bigger than itself. A station here, a connection there, a last-minute platform change, a family with luggage and a stroller, a daily commuter, a lost tourist…

The good news is that passengers are consistent. What passengers remember is whether the journey made sense: whether information appeared when needed, connections felt seamless, and help was available when something went wrong. Operations could then be described as the art of turning assets into journeys, connecting hundreds of interactions, transitions and decisions into a seamless experience.

Alstom signs a new contract to elevate Jeddah Airport’s Innovia automated people mover (APM) system

The longest five minutes in the world

Around the world, Alstom operates mobility systems in airports, helping millions of travellers navigate some of the busiest and most complex environments. Our role extends beyond moving passengers between two points. Working alongside airports, we help connect different parts of the travel experience into a coherent journey, from arrival at the airport to reaching the correct terminal, in a setting where travellers are often pressed for time and navigating unfamiliar surroundings. Ask anyone waiting for a delayed flight, a boarding gate to open, or racing to make a connection and they’ll tell you: five minutes is not always five minutes.

Airports are masters of the strange elasticity of time. The same five minutes can feel completely different depending on what passengers know, what they don’t know, and how confidently they’re moving through the environment. Passenger experience in operations is therefore about more than moving people; it’s about reducing uncertainty.

Inside an airport, passengers are rarely at their most relaxed. They’re tired. They’re stressed. They’re carrying luggage. They may be travelling with children. They may be excited to see a family member for the first time in years. They may not speak the language. They may have never flown before. Some fear getting lost. Others fear being separated from the people they arrived with.

“When passengers are reassured, waiting time shrinks. When they’re stressed or uncertain, it expands.” Elodie shrugs.

City to sky, from Jeddah to New York

In King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah , where Alstom operates and maintains the Innovia™ automated people mover, passenger flows surge during Ramadan, Hajj, and Umrah. When the airport sought to improve passenger circulation and the overall travel experience, it turned to Alstom for support.

Rather than arriving with a ready-made formula, our specialists “dragged the suitcase” alongside the airport operator, observing the experience through a passenger’s eyes. Many passengers spoke neither Arabic nor English. Some had never taken a train before. Others were exhausted after long journeys. Even short waits felt longer when passengers were unsure what to do next.

The solutions were simpler than you think. Clearer signage. Better maps. More intuitive pictograms. Coloured pathways on the floor. Meeting points where groups could easily regroup if separated. Better visibility of waiting times. More consistent information. Additional support for passengers with accessibility needs. The next challenge was to make the time they spent waiting feel more useful, more understandable and, ultimately, less stressful. That meant introducing more information, better Wi-Fi, more visual content.

In New York, the challenge extends beyond the airport environment. For the last 23 years, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s AirTrain JFK, operated and maintained by Alstom, has been moving people to, from, and inside the Airport. The network combines two automatic metro lines with an airport terminal loop. Together, they connect the airport to the wider New York metropolitan area while also moving passengers between terminals once they arrive.

7, the AirTrain JFK carries around 25 million passengers a year, with an average of 68,000 passengers per day and system availability exceeding 98.5%. But what makes the experience remarkable is how little passengers need to think about their trip.

A traveller arriving from Manhattan can board the train at Jamaica station, travel to the airport, and continue directly to the correct terminal. Once inside the airport, the terminal loop is a continuation of the same journey. The trip between urban transport and airport mobility is designed to need no transition. Alstom staff support that continuity too, guiding passengers beyond the train itself and into the wider New York transport network.

The system is fully integrated into passenger information channels and transport maps, providing clear guidance from the city to the airport and back again. Frequent services, automated operation, accessible stations and continuous investment in signage, elevators, escalators and passenger information all contribute to reducing friction. This is the essence of what we call intermodality: the boundaries between operators, modes and infrastructures become largely invisible to the passenger.

As a passenger, you should not have to care which organisation sits behind each stage of your journey. You should find your way easily, receive clear information, and get support across the wider network.

Passengers see the journey. Designers see the environment. Operators see the daily reality. Frontline staff hear the passengers’ questions. Our partners see the bigger ecosystem. No one sees it all.

Alstom signs a seven-year contract extension to operate and maintain John F. Kennedy International Airport’s AirTrain in New York

It takes more than one pair of eyes

The best ideas emerge where expertise meets local knowledge. In Jeddah, for example, solutions had to make sense not only for today’s passenger flows, but also for the airport’s future expansion plans and long-term ambitions.

The same person may have very different expectations going on vacation or commuting to work every day. Combining operational and design expertise helps us create journeys that are intuitive, accessible and adapted to local realities. Perhaps the most valuable source of insight, however, comes from the passengers themselves. “Surveys, social media, staff feedback and direct messages are the best way to see whether the system works or not, and keep improving our solutions,” says Elodie.

The best proof of a good operation is silence. It’s the result of thousands of decisions working together so that passengers can focus on where they’re going, rather than on how they’re getting there.

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