The Car Body
Holistic Optimisation of Night Trains
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) develops and demonstrates key technologies required for the next generation of Europe’s night trains. Our focus is to develop a integrated vehicle concept that is:
•economically viable,
•user-centred and
•climate- and environmentally-friendly.
We analyse requirements management for economically viable mobility
Economic viability, avoiding night train service discontinuations during economic crises, is one of the major challenges facing European night trains. We analyse market developments, benchmark existing vehicle concepts and derive engineering requirements for the next generation of night trains. These findings support key design decisions and trade-offs regarding loading gauge, vehicle dimensions, passenger density, and adaptive interior layouts.
We develop optimised lightweight structures for user-centred mobility
Based on the identified design requirements, at the DLR, we develop lightweight, modular and resource-efficient load-bearing structures that enable measures to foster night train economic viability. As increasing passenger comfort and offer-differentiated interiors require additional equipment, modularity and lightweight are essential to ensure flexibility and offset the resulting extra weight. Within AliSa, the DLR is thus developing a modular and standardised load-bearing structure that enables a high degree of flexibility and can be easily adapted to specific and future operational requirements and product innovations. The requirements of users (including manufacturers, operators and passengers) are taken into account in the developed structural design.
We design and integrate digital design methods to support climate-friendly and resource-efficient mobility
The theoretically optimised structure of the night train is translated into specific design methods at the DLR. Digital and AI-supported in-house tools enable the rapid and targeted assessment and optimisation of alternative structural concepts. Through lightweight structural design, the body-in-white provides greater flexibility (in volume and mass) for passenger-oriented interior solutions while reducing material use and environmental impact. Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to evaluate these concepts and support further optimisation throughout the vehicle development process
