Eco-innovations in rail transport

The importance of sustainable development and eco-innovation in modern economies has been rising in recent years. The idea of eco-innovation is to introduce new solutions and thus gain a competitive advantage, but without or with minimal detriment to the quality of the natural environment. This aim of this paper is to explore the eco-innovations in rail transport by presenting the case study of modified coal wagons. Therefore the main research question is: how the modifications in the coal wagon design can impact the effectiveness of cargo transport and contribute to reducing the damage to the quality of the natural environment? The presented case study shows that the introduction of some seemingly minor design changes to the wagons, taking into account the application of legal restrictions of rail transport, are of great importance in the case of handling large flows of cargo over long distances, and thus contribute to the reduction of a carbon footprint.