Human-Centred Design for NZ’s Largest Infrastructure Project: City Rail Link
Tracks
Room 3
| Tuesday, December 1, 2026 |
| 10:25 AM - 10:45 AM |
| Concurrent Room 2 |
Overview
Jared Thomas
Speaker
Jared Thomas
WSP NZ Limited
Human-Centred Design for NZ’s Largest Infrastructure Project: City Rail Link
Abstract
Context
The City Rail Link (CRL) is Aotearoa New Zealand’s first underground metro system, introducing new operational, safety, and passenger experience challenges within a complex, safety critical environment. Human centred design (HCD) has been embedded to ensure that infrastructure, systems, and operations align with the needs, capabilities, and limitations of end users, including operators, maintainers, and passengers.
Aim
This paper presents how HCD was applied within CRL to support safe, effective, and user centred outcomes, using two case studies: (1) control room design and (2) virtual reality (VR) evacuation trials.
Approach
A structured methodology was adopted and planned from project inception, drawing on international standards and best practice, end user engagement through a series of co-design workshops, mock-ups, and validation. For control rooms, this included task and communications analysis, layout optimisation, and human–machine interface (HMI) assurance. For evacuation, immersive VR simulations were used to evaluate passenger behaviour, wayfinding, and egress strategies under representative conditions. Insights were iteratively fed back into design refinement.
Results
The control room case study demonstrated improved operator situational awareness and communications pathways through a pod-style layout and screen layout optimisation, supporting safer and more efficient operations. VR evacuation trials provided early validation of egress design, revealing behavioural patterns for users with differing abilities, and a subsequent design change to improve evacuation time. The use of VR enabled rapid, cost effective testing and stakeholder alignment prior to construction completion.
Implications
These case studies highlight the value of integrating HCD across infrastructure lifecycles, particularly in complex rail environments. The CRL experience demonstrates a scalable approach, with the control room co-design methodology being applied across other Rail Operations Centres in New Zealand, and lessons learned from the VR tunnel evacuation shared with projects internationally.
The City Rail Link (CRL) is Aotearoa New Zealand’s first underground metro system, introducing new operational, safety, and passenger experience challenges within a complex, safety critical environment. Human centred design (HCD) has been embedded to ensure that infrastructure, systems, and operations align with the needs, capabilities, and limitations of end users, including operators, maintainers, and passengers.
Aim
This paper presents how HCD was applied within CRL to support safe, effective, and user centred outcomes, using two case studies: (1) control room design and (2) virtual reality (VR) evacuation trials.
Approach
A structured methodology was adopted and planned from project inception, drawing on international standards and best practice, end user engagement through a series of co-design workshops, mock-ups, and validation. For control rooms, this included task and communications analysis, layout optimisation, and human–machine interface (HMI) assurance. For evacuation, immersive VR simulations were used to evaluate passenger behaviour, wayfinding, and egress strategies under representative conditions. Insights were iteratively fed back into design refinement.
Results
The control room case study demonstrated improved operator situational awareness and communications pathways through a pod-style layout and screen layout optimisation, supporting safer and more efficient operations. VR evacuation trials provided early validation of egress design, revealing behavioural patterns for users with differing abilities, and a subsequent design change to improve evacuation time. The use of VR enabled rapid, cost effective testing and stakeholder alignment prior to construction completion.
Implications
These case studies highlight the value of integrating HCD across infrastructure lifecycles, particularly in complex rail environments. The CRL experience demonstrates a scalable approach, with the control room co-design methodology being applied across other Rail Operations Centres in New Zealand, and lessons learned from the VR tunnel evacuation shared with projects internationally.
Biography
Jared is an internationally recognised Technical Director in human factors psychology, with a specialty in delivery of human-centred design in the transport sector.
He has 25 years of experience successfully applying specialist human factors techniques to provide quality assurance in transport design, including successful collaborations across Australasia, Canada, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
