The railway industry are looking to increase the capacity of the railway system, bringing flexibility in order to align capacity and demand, to increase availability, reliability and energy efficiency reducing life cycle costs (LCC) and an improvement of the passenger comfort and the attractiveness of the rail transport.

One of the lines of action to solve the above challenges is the introduction of new carbody structures. The weight saving potential of the use of new materials and technologies in the carbody structures would result in reduced power consumption, lower inertia, less track wear and the ability to carry greater payloads.

One example of the employ of light structures is Talgo AVRIL train, with an innovative layout of seats that allows to introduce one extra seat per row (3+2 configuration), increasing dramatically the capacity of the train. It has been possible, respecting the current regulatory framework, with an optimized design of the extruded aluminium structure.

It will be presented different challenges of introducing lighter structures in the carbodies of coaches of high speed train and different studies and projects to describe the future possibilities of new material and methodologies to improve the lightness of the vehicles.