Recent Activities in Vehicle Technology Research and Development

RTRI is conducting R & D with the aim of improving railway safety, reducing maintenance costs, and improving rail services by introducing higher running speeds. Approximately half of all R & D for vehicles is concentrated on safety, mainly focusing on research on running safety evaluation methods such as flange climb derailment and crashworthiness evaluation. To improve the quality of railway services for passengers, other research and development aims to improve ride comfort by reducing vibration, developing tilting technology and noise reduction. This paper gives an overview of current research and development being conducted in the Vehicle Structure Technology Division, the status of crashworthiness evaluation, and of work to improve ride comfort.