NGT CARGO future of the freight train? (Rail Color News)

Imagine a combination of high speed, flexibility in train compositions, full automation, individually powered cars and last-mile transport. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has combined these features in its innovative and integral freight train concept, called: NGT CARGO.

With NGT CARGO, transport researchers at DLR aim to make rail freight more attractive than it is today, as its share in the overall transport volumes is not increasing. Despite widely supported policies to support a modal shift from road to rail, this shift does not happen or only to a very small extent. At the same time, freight traffic will continue to increase, in Germany alone by almost 40% until 2030.

The NGT CARGO concept is distinguished by a high level of automation, intelligent handling and high speeds. In this way, rail freight transportation can be made more flexible and the capacity of the system can be increased. The automatically driven NGT CARGO trains will be made up of single wagons and powerful end cars, automatically coupled together as required. This way, a vast range of goods can be transported flexibly, with low use of resources, minimal deployment of personnel and short transport times. As the transportation of small-scale shipments in particular will increase significantly in the future, the focus is on fast, reliable freight transport.

Full article & illustrations