Comments on Chapter 12 of ‘‘Railway Noise and Vibration: Mechanisms, Modelling and Means of Control”, by D. Thompson (with contributions from C. Jones and P.-E. Gautier), Elsevier, 2009

In this “Letter to the Editor”, it is detailed how Chapter 12 of the book “Railway Noise and Vibration: Mechanisms, Modelling and Means of Control”, by D. Thompson (with contributions from C. Jones and P.-E. Gautier), Elsevier, 2009, offers a rather incomplete review of the topic of the generation of ground vibrations by high-speed trains, in particular by trans-Rayleigh trains. As a result of this limited review, readers unfamiliar with the history of the problem will gain an incorrect impression of the topic and a rather incomplete knowledge of past work on it. This letter attempts to supply a more appropriate review.     

Reply to Comments on Chapter 12 of “Railway Noise and Vibration: Mechanisms, Modelling and Means of Control”, by D. Thompson (with contributions from C. Jones and P.-E. Gautier), Elsevier, 2009

In this authors’ reply it is stressed that the book “Railway Noise and Vibration: Mechanisms, Modelling and Means of Control, Elsevier (2009)” is a textbook which does not set out to provide a historical review. Moreover, the topic of the increase in vibration above a critical speed is considered by the authors to be a comparatively rare phenomenon within the topic of ground vibration from surface railways, the latter itself only being dealt with in a single chapter of the book.