Improving Maglev Vehicle Characteristics for the Yamanashi Test Line

New vehicles have been manufactured for the Yamanashi Maglev Test Line that aim at improving several characteristics based on the test results of existing train-sets. Since July 2002, we have been obtaining data from the test running of two new vehicles, the Mc5 leading car and the M4 long-size intermediate car. The Mc5 is a special leading car to test reductions in micro-pressure waves, and the M4 is a prototype commercial car with improved ride comfort. This paper describes the contents of technical developments to investigate aerodynamic characteristics, improve ride comfort and reduce cabin interior noise, for comparison with those of existing vehicles.