The EU White Paper on Transport 2011 states that, by 2030, a shift of 30% of road freight over 300km to rail, or a doubling of the freight transport by rail compared to 2005, should be achieved. Future models of locomotives might strongly contribute to achieving this challenge, supporting the achievement of the goal by providing more attractive rail freight services to the final customer, with competitive rail solutions, maximizing flexibility and efficiency while reducing the operating and maintenance costs.

The final vision of the DYNAFREIGHT is fully in line with the objectives of the EU White Paper on Transport. DYNAFREIGHT will contribute to this vision and overall concept of the EU rail freight transport by focusing on the next generation freight bogie locomotives and on preparing the path for regular operations of long freight trains (up to 1,500m), providing the first steps for the development of TD5.5 New Freight Propulsion Concepts within Shift2Rail IP5.

DYNAFREIGHT will contribute to the next railway freight propulsion concepts addressing two main areas: freight running gear for locomotives and operation of long freight trains, with the following high-level objectives:

• Improved performances: traction, speed, running dynamics and wheel/rail efforts;
• Reduced rail freight noise at the source;
• Enhance capacity/traffic throughput with the operation of longer trains (up to 1,500m);
• Reduced of operation and maintenance costs (reduce wheel and rail wear, smarter maintenance, etc.).