Trip and test drive in Frankfurt

On the 9th February 2017 a trip to the Frankfurt local public transport operator VGF took place for interested students of the lecture “Principles of Rail Vehicle Technology”. The visit consisted of two agenda items.

A test drive in an R series car took place first and the students were asked about their subjective comfort level. The participants could indicate the discomfort level they were feeling by means of a Smartphone App developed at the institute. The evaluations were registered together with the GPS-position and the current time in order to compare the data obtained.

The results will contribute to an ongoing research project called “Development of a new ride comfort evaluation method for tramway vehicles”.

Finally, a staff member gave a guided tour through the tram workshops of the VGF. The students could observe the components and assemblies shown in the lecture “Principles of Rail Vehicle Technology” and showed an interest in the technical maintenance of the vehicles. Therefore, the visit was helpful to understand the basic principles and the functioning of the single subsystems as well as the overall system rail vehicle.