In message , at 09:29:39 on 
Sat, 13 Sep 2008, Hatunen  remarked:
>>I'm pretty sure the sideways g exceeds more than that from time to time.
>>I was on a particularly nasty train from Gatwick to Victoria the other
>>day where the random sideways lurching was quite disconcerting.
>
>Train tracks are designed to keep the lateral acceleration below
>a certain level on curves at the design speed.

My experience above isn't curves, but bits of line that should be 
straight, having kinks in.

>On well-maintained tracks there should be little or no "lurching". But 
>tracks are not always that well-maintained. High speed rail tracks 
>usually are well-maintained. I've expereinced no "lurching" on Eurostar 
>or German ICEs.

The only bit of bad track I found on Eurostar was when it operated from 
Waterloo and there was a section near Vauxhall station where it 
consistently bottomed the suspension about once a second: bang .... 
bang.... bang
-- 
Roland Perry