Chinese scientists hope to smooth the path of fastest ever bullet trains, which travel at 400km/h
- The country’s fastest trains currently experience little turbulence, but higher speeds raise the risk that tiny bumps could give passengers motion sickness
- Raising the sleepers that support the rails can counteract this effect, but an engineer warns that this seemingly simple solution could prove tricky in reality
China’s fastest trains currently have a top speed of about 350km/h (217mph) and passengers generally find the trains to be incredibly smooth with little motion disturbing objects inside the carriage.
But by 2025 a new model, the CR450, will enter service with a top speed of 400km/h – speeds that only a handful of commercially available supercars, such as the Bugatti Veyron, are capable of reaching.
At such high speeds, even a small bump could cause the whole train to vibrate. On a long trip, such as the near-2,000km (1,240-mile) journey from Hong Kong to Beijing, persistent vibrations could give passengers motion sickness.
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The team, led by Professor Shi Jin from Beijing Jiaotong University, said the issue could be solved by adjusting the height of the rail by just a few millimetres at some “sensitive spots”.
