Ground vibration boom from high-speed trains

A brief review is given of the recent theoretical investigations into generation of ground vibrations by high-speed trains carried out at the Nottingham Trent University. One of the most interesting results of these investigations was the prediction of a ground vibration boom from high-speed trains which may occur when train speeds exceed the velocity of Rayleigh surface waves in the ground. The existence of a ground vibration boom has been recently confirmed experimentally on the newly opened high-speed railway line in Sweden for train speeds of only 160 km/h. The observed very large increase of generated ground vibrations implies that this phenomenon should be taken into account by designers and operators of high-speed railways.