The Vehicle Control Technology Division, Railway Technical Research Institute, is promoting research and development to improve the traction and brake control systems for railway vehicles. Global warning, greenhouse effect, air pollution and the like are becoming increasingly severe environmental issues. Under the circumstances, another hefty task for the Division is to develop measures for energy saving in railways. Thus, the Division is developing a system to utilize energy more effectively by using batteries or other energy storing media whose performance has dramatically improved in recent years, and promoting basic researches on the applicability of the fuel cell, which is expected to be a promising power source in the future, to railway vehicles. In regard to power control, the Division is studying and a controlling method therefore. This paper outlines the above activities promoted by the Division.

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