Ermewa and the consortium partners will draw up an operating and deployment concept for the first application by mid-2019. This will rely on the requirements of existing services and customer relationships, and refer to the concept for the chassis and relevant components, the car body, electrical equipment and wagon intelligence identified by CFW in Shift2Rail.

The project aims to present a validated business case for the wagon, which will create the basis for future investment and use of the new technology.

Wagon concept

The CFW wagon concept includes the following features:

  • operation is based on block trains to avoid shunting and continuous train formation
  • lightweight construction combined with a multi-material approach for improved driving dynamics, significantly lowering tare weight and offering a higher payload resulting in significantly improved traction utilisation
  • aerodynamic car body and chassis design, producing less noise and lower energy consumption
  • electronic brake control with powerful disc brake for improved train dynamics, which will permit access to faster train paths, particularly during the day and in mixed traffic
  • modular structure with swap bodies for various types of freight, which will enable higher mileage and compensate for the higher upfront purchase cost of the wagon
  • central coupling to improve longitudinal train dynamics and reduce weight. A fully automatic version will offer simpler, faster, and safer train formation
  • power supply for refrigerated goods and telematic services for continuous monitoring of the vehicle and load, and
  • use of the Safe Train Integrity (STI) system for continuous safe monitoring of wagon and train conditions, which makes automation possible while providing a basic function for ETCS Level 3.

CFW consortium members include Contraffic, Germany, German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Waggonbau Niesky, Germany, German Rail Industry Association (VDB), Centre for Technical Studies and Research (CEIT), Spain, TU Dresden, Scheidt & Bachmann, and Contitech.

Ermewa is one of Europe’s largest wagon leasing companies with a fleet of more than 42,000 units.