An open coach is a railway passenger coach that does not have compartments or other divisions within it and in which the seats are arranged in one or more open plan

Open plan

Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan which makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices...

 areas with a centre aisle. The first open coaches appeared in the first half of the 19th century in the USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The prototype for their design were the passenger cabins in the river steamers which were then widespread in America. As a result of their origin they were originally known in Europe as "American system passenger coaches" or "American coaches" (Personenwagen amerikanischen Systems or Amerikanerwagen) and the idea soon caught on in European railway companies. Initially they were mainly used for rural regional services, whilst urban local trains and local-distance services were dominated by compartment coach

Compartment coach

A compartment coach is a railway passenger coach divided into separate areas or compartments, with no means of moving between each compartment.- English origins :...

es. Several European railways, for example the Royal Württemberg State Railways

Royal Württemberg State Railways

The Royal Württemberg State Railways were the state railways of the Kingdom of Württemberg between 1843 and 1920...

 or the Swiss Northeastern Railway

Swiss Northeastern Railway

The Swiss Northeastern Railway or NOB was an early railway company in Switzerland.In 1853 the Swiss Northern Railway merged with the Lake Constance and Rheinfall Railways under the name Swiss Northeastern Railway.The main instigator was Alfred Escher...

 (Schweizerische Nordostbahn), however, preferred open coaches from the start for all types of train.

From the beginning of the 20th century open coaches became common used in local trains and began to spread to long-distance services too. High-speed train

High-speed rail

High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...

s often consist only of open coaches.

The seats in open coaches are either arranged in groups opposite one another or behind one another aeroplane-style, and sometimes seats can be rotated to face the direction of travel. Seats facing one another may be provided with fixed tables, seats arranged one behind the other often have folding trays in the back of the seat in front.

Open coaches are almost always equipped with gangways. Originally these were open platforms at the ends of the coach, but from the end of the 19th century the gangways have usually been protected with bellows or rubber connectors.

Tramway

On tramways, an open coach is a six- or eight-wheeled driving car or trailer, which has an especially high volumetric capacity. Unlike the earlier, typical platform coaches, open coaches do not have partitions with doors between the entrance area and the actual passenger compartment. These coaches were popular in central Europe in the early 1950s and replaced the old (mainly four-wheeled) platform coaches. Whilst in West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 this type of vehicle was rapidly replaced by articulated trams, in East Germany, the Tatra trams were the norm during the 1960s in many cities. The same was true in the former Eastern Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

countries.