Shorter development periods and an efficient introduction of new products are increasingly important in the dynamic rail vehicle market. Safety and reliability as well as the rolling stability, the noise reduction and the maintenance costs are additional aspects, being important for the new high efficiency rail vehicles. The motor bogie, the heaviest train component offers the most important weight reduction potential. Various attempts have been made to realise aluminium frames and other light weight bogie components which mostly did not reach beyond the prototype stage for various technical and market reasons. The main objectives of this proposal are: the development of a light weight bogie by new design concepts based on modern light weight materials and manufacturing technologies as well as mission based dimensioning methodologies, taking into account noise reduction and safety.