Skip to main content

Bombardier high speed train wins design awards in USA and Germany

Bombardier Transportation has won the iF Product Design Award as well as the Good Design Award for its ground-breaking very high speed (VHS) train currently being developed for leading railway markets in Europe, Asia and North America.
March 13, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

513 Bombardier Transportation has won the iF Product Design Award as well as the Good Design Award for its ground-breaking very high speed (VHS) train currently being developed for leading railway markets in Europe, Asia and North America. The Zefiro train platform combines the highest capacity in the industry with pioneering levels of passenger comfort and employs leading-edge technologies and advanced aerodynamics to reduce energy consumption. The company says the technology exists to meet virtually any high speed requirement anywhere in the world.

The Zefiro high speed train platform can accommodate speed performance from 250-380 km/h (155-235 mph) and is highly flexible. Trains can significantly reduce travelling times between major cities and boost interregional economic growth.

The iF Product Design Award from Germany recognises design quality, finish, choice of materials, degree of innovation, environmental impact, functionality, safety as well as brand value.
This is also the third time in five years that Bombardier has won the Good Design Award for its train design. The award is conferred annually by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design together with the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

"These prestigious awards are testament to the Zefiro VHS train's innovative approach to very high speed travel," said Michael Sohn, team leader industrial design, Zefiro project, Bombardier Transportation.

The unique aerodynamic design of the Zefiro train family leads to superior cross wind stability, aerodynamic drag and pressure pulses. Bombardier Transportation is the first company in Europe to develop and apply an aluminum carbody for driving cars as well as trailer cars in the high speed segment, resulting in reduced weight and lower track wear as well as full compliance with stringent safety requirements. Other innovative developments include the Bombardier EBI Drive 50 driver assistance system and the company’s thermo efficient climatisation system. The company claims that these and other energy saving measures mean that Zefiro trains boast the lowest energy consumption per seat of any VHS train.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Vision 2016 highlights the latest trends and technology in machine vision
    October 28, 2016
    The Vision Show is the perfect venue to catch up with the latest moves, trends and launches in the traffic vision sector, and ITS International editor Colin Sowman highlights a few to start with…
  • C/AVs could mean cheaper roads
    October 28, 2019
    The safety benefits of C/AVs have long been promoted – but research suggests they should also contribute to cheaper roads. David Crawford investigates the potential benefits in infrastructure costs Building narrower freeway lanes to accommodate the enhanced route-tracking capabilities of connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs), running in platoon conditions, could result in cost savings of £0.5 million (€0.56 million or US$6.5 million) for every km of road length built. Such benefits could be secur
  • EU triples funding for rail innovation
    December 18, 2013
    The European Commission has adopted Shift2Rail, a new public-private partnership to invest around US$1.3 billion in research and innovation to get more passengers and freight onto Europe's railways. Rail is amongst the most efficient and climate-friendly forms of transport, but currently it only carries about only 10 per cent of European cargo and 6 per cent of passengers each year. Shift2Rail is an ambitious public-private partnership which will manage a seven-year work programme of targeted research an
  • Hyperloop: from sci-fi to transport policy
    April 16, 2020
    The future is here. While it has long looked like something from a sci-fi movie, Graham Anderson investigates a technology whose time might have come.