Motion sickness in tilting trains Description and analysis of the present knowledge Literature study

background, aim, method, result) max 200 words: Carbody tilting is today a mature and inexpensive technology allowing higher speeds in curves and thus reduced travel time. The technology is accepted by most train operators, but motion sickness is an issue still holding back the full potential of tilting trains. Evidence of motion sickness has been reported in air, in space, at sea, on cars, on trains, at fairground rides etc. There are more reports of motion sickness in tilting trains than in non-tilted trains, and the share of passengers getting motion sick is also higher in tilting trains. Motion sickness resulting from provocative experiments in laboratories is one very important key in finding the cause of motion sickness as provocative motions can be isolated in laboratories but not in real environments. Laboratory tests have proven that translations in all directions can cause motion sickness. Rotations seam to have less correlation with motion sickness than translations. However, all the laboratory tests causing motion sickness have been performed at amplitudes higher than amplitudes measured in tilting trains. Combinations of motions, in particular translations combined with rotations, may be the cause of motion sickness in tilting trains as combinations of motions are recognized as effective in creating motion sickness. The report has two main parts. The first part, chapters 2 and 3, covers the knowledge found in the literature and the experiences from tests performed in laboratories. Also reported and discussed are the issues where motion sickness has been found to appear, the character of the motions involved, different hypotheses for the causation of motion sickness as well as its time dependence. The second part, chapters 4 and 5, reports on specific motion quantities for tilting trains and their relations to motions known to cause motion sickness in laboratories. This part ends up with conclusions based on the literature and the analyses made.