Transportation Modules

The General Transportation System (GTS) Foundation has a vision of creating an environmentally- and economically sustainable transportation system. The GTS Foundation is currently in the planning stage of a more developed “Rapid Transportation System” (RTS) that consists of cabins suspended under driving sleds that are elevated above ground. These cabins further have electro-dynamically propulsion and by means of employing many different cabin types, the GTS system can be adapted after many different passenger needs.

The GTS project has so far focused mainly on the technical development with respect to current infrastructure. Therefore the end use, that is how future users would want to interact with the GTS system, has not yet been thoroughly investigated.

This master thesis was set up in order to showcase the benefits and the adaptability of the GTS-system in contrast to existing modes of transport. The project was carried out by means of designing two interior seating environments of GTS cabins, one for a primary and another for a secondary target group. The primary group consisted of travellers between Arlanda Airport and Uppsala, as this is the first intended GTS route. Moreover, the main goal of this thesis was to generate a pleasant and accessible travel experience for the primary target group. The secondary target group was chosen in contrast to the primary group, and consisted of weekly commuters with a current travel time of approximately three hours. Seeing that the GTS system is nonexistent, the needs and requirements, as well as the experienced problems of passengers in currently available transportation systems, were firstly investigated. This investigation was carried out by means of conducting a survey, interviews on board of the flight buses between Gothenburg and Landvetter Airport as well as a dialogue. Moreover, to better anticipate some of the needs on the interiors of GTS cabins, the more explorative method “staging”, was used. In addition, the authors went abroad to the Netherlands and Germany in order to investigate existing transportation systems, some of which were suspended. The findings of the user studies resulted in many requirements on the interiors, as well as in several desired product expressions.

These product expressions enabled the formulation of the visual design philosophy below:
“The design should aim to be modern, spacious, light and clean in its expression. The overall experience should evoke a sense of tranquility and safety for the users and at the same time provide an adequate degree of comfort as well as a certain level of novelty in relation to existing means of airport transportation.”

The project was largely focused on the investigation of user needs as well as on the design of the seating environments for the primary target group. Even though it was highly challenging to design a layout and interior adapted after the needs of different user groups, the main goal of creating a pleasant travel experience for passengers between Uppsala and Arlanda was achieved by means of including the researched product expressions as well as considering many user needs in the final design.