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The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Systems Transportation Center recently awarded a $1.4 million contract to product and technology development firm TIAX L.L.C. to research ways to improve passenger-rail equipment crashworthiness.

Under a five-year contract, TIAX will design and test components used in a train’s "crush zone" — a structure incorporated into a car’s end to absorb energy during an impact. Initial tests have shown that crush zones could reduce the number of crash-related deaths, according to TIAX.

Since 1993, TIAX has worked with the Volpe Center on a variety of rail-crashworthiness projects, such as evaluating alternative equipment; investigating anti-climbing designs for colliding rail equipment; analyzing Volpe’s tests on single cars, two-car, train-to-train and end-frame passenger equipment; and developing and improving tools and techniques to help analyze rail equipment.