Energy and maintenance costs constitute a large part of the recurring cost for railway operation. The vehicle weight impacts both energy consumption and the need for tamping of the track, while curving performance impacts the curving resistance and the wear on wheels and rails. In the project RUN2Rail and further in NextGear, both parts of the EU-funded initiative Shift2Rail, a single axle running gear with composite frame and active wheelset guidance was proposed for metro vehicles. The present study is comparing a reference vehicle from Metro Madrid with the proposed vehicle in terms of energy consumption and maintenance cost for simulated service on Metro Madrid Line 10 with curvature, gradients, stops and speed profiles considered. The calculated yearly saving for each vehicle become about 50 k€/(year*trainset), split on 20% on energy and 40% on each of wheel and track maintenance.
