GOOD DESIGN AWARD

Keyword
Year awarded: To
Special Award
Company Info: Country / Region

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Award-winning item: The Long Distance Train [WEST EXPRESS GINGA]
Business Owner: West Japan Railway Company
Category: Railway, Shipping, Aircraft
Company: West Japan Railway Company (Japan)
Award Number: 21G100945
Outline of Good Design Award winners: Outline of Good Design Award winners 2021

Outline* The shown information is the one as of the awarded date and might has been changed.

Outline: In order to meet the demand, "I wanna go somewhere far away" that everybody has, the train has various space such as a seat for lying down while viewing, a seat with elegance like the classical sleeping car Pullman, a seat with pleasure like the couchette as European style, a space for joining with the local people and so on. We are proposing and designing a new way to spend time on the train now.
Producer: West Japan Railway Company
Director: Yasuyuki KAWANISHI, ICHIBANSEN Co., Ltd.
Designer: Yasuyuki KAWANISHI, ICHIBANSEN Co., Ltd. + West Japan Railway Company + WEST JAPAN RAILWAY TECHNOS CORPORATION
More information: https://www.jr-odekake.net/railroad/westexginga/
Already in service/use: 2020/9/11

Evaluation

This is a brilliant design of railway cars and travel plan that enables people to enjoy long-distance rail travel, which is the opposite of travel in a luxury sleeper train only wealthy passengers can use. Renovating a 40-year-old rapid-transit train, the train has several classes of seats which are not overly luxurious but also comfortable. In addition, we could see various efforts to entertain passengers during a long train ride, and to improve the mobility of passengers in the train. As for the design of the travel plan, they provided a new concept that deliberately set travel time to a half day, and allowed a stop of approximately an hour around the destination so that passengers can see local people and purchase local products.