Ticket Desk Ergonomics
Heathrow Express
background
Heathrow Express delivers a fast transit service between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport. The service is designed to facilitate plane passenger movement with luggage check-in at Paddington and low level trains to ease moving luggage on/off the trains. Operated by BAA, Heathrow Express carries an average of 15,000 passengers every day and over 50 million people have travelled on the service since its launch in 1998
project
We were commissioned to review the ergonomics of the ticket desks at Heathrow and at Paddington Station. The aims of the audit were to:
- Assess against ergonomics good practice
- Against health & safety requirements
- and user/staff needs
implementation
Our consultant team visited the ticket desks and spent a day discussing the work with the staff and observing them in action. The audit included developing a task analysis of the operational activities and video analysis of the staff. Ten ticket desk staff were consulted.
outcomes
The audit identified a number of positives where the workstations met ergonomics and H&S good practice. It also highlighted a number of other issues such as seating, operator posture when providing passengers with information and the location of equipment. Our intervention gave HEX a clear perspective on the risks in the current environment and a roadmap for their resolution.