In the present study, after comprehensive examination of previous studies on railway vehicle crashworthiness strategies, an innovative crush zone system to improve crashworthiness of railway passenger car is developed. This system absorbs 3 MJ kinetic energy in a progressive manner. In order to evaluate the crashworthiness features of the crush zone, in the first step, energy absorber components (thin walled tubes and honeycomb structures) are simulated by using explicit finite element method. To validate the FE models, honeycomb structures are analyzed by conducting quasi-static tests. The good agreement between experimental measurements and FE analysis results indicates that the FE model is accurate. The primary energy absorbers are simulated by dynamic explicit finite elements method. By extracting the force-deformation curve of this structure, energy absorption and progressive crushing behavior is examined.© 2013 JESTECH. All rights reserved.