Years of research
Continuous data collection in collaboration with TU Wien's Research Centre for Railway Engineering since 2001.
About us
25 years of asking how
passengers really move.
netwiss OG is a Vienna-based research and consulting company. Everything we build is founded on one of Europe's largest empirical datasets on passenger behaviour — collected in real vehicles, during real operations, over more than two decades.
Passengers observed
Every data point comes from real passengers, in real vehicles, during real-world operations. Zero simulated behaviour.
Supplementary surveys
Targeted questionnaires across 10+ European countries add qualitative depth to direct observation data.
Vehicles analysed
Rail, tram, metro, and bus — from regional commuter trains to high-speed intercity stock.
Our story
From one dissertation to a family of tools.
2001
The question behind everything
Bernhard Rüger begins his dissertation at TU Wien: "Luggage in Rail Transport".
It asked how carrying luggage shapes the modal split, how passengers with luggage actually behave on board, and which operational problems follow from that. One sentence from his doctoral supervisor set the direction of the entire work — and, ultimately, of everything netwiss built afterwards.
As long as the railway is unable to fully replace the boot of a car, it will not be successful.
References
Our customers and the projects we have completed in recent years.
Projects
- ICE3
- ICE3neo
- ICE4
- ICE-L
- S-Bahn München
- Railjet
- Railjet 2
- Railjet Double Deck Train
- Nightjet
- Himmelstreppe
- Ötscherbär
- Citybahn-Waidhofen
- Waldviertler Schmalspurbahnen
- Schneebergbahn
- Flexity
- ETR610
- TWINDEXX Swiss Express
- Flirt
- CAT-KISS
- Future concepts for DB-Fernverkehr / DB-Regio / SBB
Companies
- DB-Fernverkehr
- DB-Regio
- SBB
- ÖBB
- Niederösterreichbahnen
- ace4rail
- Bombardier Transportation
- ALSTOM
- Siemens Mobility GmbH Austria
- Siemens Mobility GmbH Switzerland
- Siemens Mobility GmbH Germany
- Nose Design
- Experience N+P
- Experience Design GmbH
- moodley strategy & design group
- Andreas Vogler Studio
- Transport Canada
- City Airport Train (CAT) Vienna
Research partners
TU WienResearch Centre for Railway Engineering — scientific partner, quality assurance
IT-eXperienceIT-eXperience Informationstechnologie GmbH — IT development
Award-winning TrainOptimizer®
The research-first approach
Only ~10% of vehicles
are truly efficient.
That is the conclusion from our research.
Most vehicle layouts are designed to maximise seat count — not to reflect how passengers actually board, alight, and stow luggage.
The result:
- Congested doors and blocked aisles
- Dwell times that cascade into timetable failures
- Inefficiency caused by poorly utilised trains
- Energy wasted by the need to make up for delays
We built it to fix exactly this. Unlike tools that rely on theoretical models, every calculation is anchored to our empirical data — 400,000+ observations of passengers in the vehicles you operate, on routes like yours.
- +20%more effective capacity
- −70%shorter dwell times
- −20%traction energy
- 20 minper full evaluation
The data foundation
What the software actually knows.
Every calculation draws on behaviour recorded in real operation — not on assumptions about how passengers ought to move.
- 01
Boarding
How travellers enter a vehicle, which door they pick, and how they queue and merge at it.
- 02
Moving through
How they move along the aisle, where they slow down, and where they obstruct one another.
- 03
Choosing a seat
Which seat they head for, which ones they avoid, and how long the decision takes.
- 04
Stowing luggage
Where they put each item, which racks they reject, and when they give up and block the aisle.
And the exact timing of every one of these steps — measured, not estimated.
Luggage, in detail
- Type and quantity of items carried
- Size and weight of every item
Every data point is linked to
- Age and gender of the traveller
- Purpose of the journey
- The exact interior layout of the vehicle
This is the depth that cannot be bought or scraped: data on passenger behaviour at this precision is not publicly available.
How we collect data
A methodology built for real-world complexity.
01
Direct observation
Trained researchers record exactly how passengers board, alight, choose seats, and handle luggage during revenue service — without interference.
02
Structured surveys
Supplementary questionnaires capture passenger intent, comfort ratings, and luggage expectations to add qualitative depth to the observation data.
03
Multi-country validation
Data gathered across 10+ European countries ensures our models reflect genuine behavioural variation — not one country's quirks.
04
Continuous update
The dataset grows as new vehicles enter service and passenger habits evolve, so every TrainOptimizer® result reflects the current state of European travel.
Ready to optimise your vehicles?
Explore the software built on 25 years of research, or talk to our team about applying it to your fleet.