Objective: Drawing on the results of the conducted marketing research, to work out a portrait of a potential consumer of groupage cargo transportation in a pallet wagon and a matrix of market consumer expectations with an assessment of customer focus and effective demand; provide a list of technical requirements for the car, potential routes, additional options and services for the transportation of groupage cargo in a pallet car, on the basis of which to evaluate possible options for technical solutions. Methods: Comparative analysis and assessment of the obtained analytical dependencies are applied; the need for options based on statistical processing of respondents’ answers is justified. Results: Technical solutions in several versions are recommended, the concept of a covered wagon with a large-volume body and an increased length of the loading and unloading front, with a draft gear, in a single-storey design, was proposed as a general one when a pallet car enters the market. An integral assessment of the opinions of respondents was carried out, by means of statistical analysis and visualization of the results obtained, a typical consumer was characterized. Practical importance: Marketing research data can be used when entering the market in terms of establishing optional lines of technical performance of rolling stock and its cost.

СОКРАЩЕННЫЙ АЛГОРИТМ СТРУКТУРНО-ПАРАМЕТРИЧЕСКОЙ ОПТИМИЗАЦИИ ТОРЦЕВЫХ СТЕН ГРУЗОВЫХ ВАГОНОВПредложен сокращенный алгоритм структурно-параметрической оптимизации торцевых стен грузовых вагонов. Приведен пример оптимизации торцевой стены полувагона модели 12-119 по предложенному ал-горитму. Показана эффективность предлагаемого алгоритма по сравнению с результатами отдельно прово-димой параметрической оптимизации.Ключевые слова: грузовой вагон, структурная оптимизация, параметрическая оптимизация, метод конечных элементов, расчет на прочность.