With seamless transfers between multiple modes of transport, Pods4Rail aims to open up new possibilities in mobility. © moodley

Cities

Project Pods4Rail

With Pods4Rail, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), alongside partners from research and industry, has designed a modular mobility concept. It is intended to seamlessly transport passengers and freight across multiple modes of transport in the future. To achieve this, standardized capsules automatically transfer between carrier units for rail, road, and cable car systems.

Thomas Surrer

17. August 2026

In the EU project Pods4Rail, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), together with partners from research and industry, has developed an innovative, automated mobility concept designed to link rail transport more closely with road and cable car systems.

The Pods4Rail approach is modular: capsules for transporting passengers and freight – so-called pods – are combined with mobile undercarriages for different modes of transport, known as carrier units.

These carrier units include the necessary components for each mode, such as the chassis, drive system, power supply, and other technical systems.

Project Framework

The company Siemens Mobility coordinated the project, which involved a total of 15 participants from seven European countries. It received around three million euros in funding from the European Union through the “Europe’s Rail” Joint Undertaking and the “Horizon Europe” research program.

DLR was the largest research institution involved in the project.

A total of five DLR institutes participated in the study, contributing DLR’s expertise across the entire development chain for rail and road vehicles.

Concept of Supermodality

“The goal of Pods4Rail is seamless door-to-door transportation across different modes of transport. Passengers and freight remain inside the same capsule the entire time and are transferred with it to another carrier unit as needed,” explains DLR researcher Manuel Osebek, defining “supermodality” as the core idea behind Pods4Rail.

He led the project at the DLR Institute of Vehicle Concepts.

Concept

Loading capsules for transporting passengers and freight onto carrier units for rail transport.

Example of Supermodality

A capsule could, for example, start on a road carrier unit in a rural area. At a hub, it is automatically transferred onto rail carrier units. This enables it, along with other capsules, to cover the majority of the route energy-efficiently on rails.

Whether for travelers or logistics companies, the needs of the users are at the center of the concept. This demands a high degree of flexibility, speed, innovation, and comfort – naturally combined with the high level of safety offered by rail transport.

Cable Cars as Part of the Concept

Cities worldwide are considering cable cars to supplement their public transit networks. That is why Pods4Rail also examined this mode of transport and investigated the extent to which cable cars can be integrated into the concept.

Due to its high capacity, efficiency, and climate and environmental friendliness, rail forms the backbone of Pods4Rail.

“For the study, we didn’t just look at the vehicles required for such a concept. Key aspects also included how capsules and carrier units can be connected to one another, as well as questions regarding automation. Analyses of the necessary infrastructure and ideas for digital operating concepts rounded out the work,” Osebek summarizes.

The EU project benefited significantly from the diverse expertise of its participants.

Details:

The capsules for transporting passengers and freight can be combined with different carrier units – here for road transport. This principle enables seamless door-to-door transportation across different modes of transport.

User Requirements

At the start, the project team analyzed existing intermodal mobility systems and potential areas of application. In their evaluation, they paid equal attention to technical performance data, acceptance, comfort, accessibility, environmental impact, and economic feasibility.

To this end, DLR conducted surveys with potential user groups and evaluated existing vehicle and mobility concepts as technological benchmarks.

Cases and Scenarios

Overall, the team identified more than 20 use cases and developed eight business scenarios. The potential applications range from demand-driven passenger transport on low-traffic branch lines to parcel and express logistics, as well as mobile medical facilities.

These results formed the basis for deriving the technical requirements for capsules, carrier units, automated transfer systems, and mobility management.

Technical Feasibility

One of DLR’s main priorities was determining how to translate these requirements into technically feasible vehicle concepts. To this end, it examined modular and lightweight vehicle structures, energy requirements, capsule climate control, and the interfaces between the capsule and chassis.

Additionally, requirements were defined for communication between vehicles, infrastructure, and traffic management. DLR also contributed its expertise regarding standards, authorization procedures, and safety requirements in road and rail transport.

This resulted in high-level functional requirements for the overall system, which served as the foundation for detailing transport cabins, carrier units, locking mechanisms, and transfer systems.

The Next Stage of Development

Pods4Rail demonstrates how transport infrastructure can be used more flexibly and how different modes of transport can be more closely interconnected. Particularly on branch lines and in regions with fluctuating demand, the concept can enable new demand-driven services.

At the same time, larger portions of a transport chain can be shifted to energy-efficient rail without giving up the benefits of direct road connectivity.

The results create a foundation for further developing individual components and testing them on a larger scale. This allows the next phase to address questions surrounding authorization, economic viability, and integration into existing transport networks.

To this end, the follow-up project “PREFER” (Pods and Regional Flexible Efficient Rolling Stock), led by DLR, is expected to launch later this year.