In order to decrease maintenance cost of wheels and rail, self-steering bogies with cross-anchors are used in South African railway freight cars and Austrian underground railway vehicles. In this paper, we carried out analytical study on applicability of the self-steering bogies to Japanese commuter trains. As a result, it is found out that the self-steering bogies can reduce horizontal stiffness of primary suspension to as small as half of conventional bogies keeping the same running stability. It is also found out that the attack angle and lateral force of the self-steering bogie in sharp curve are smaller than those of conventional bogie. In particular, the effects of the self-steering bogie are large when the coefficient of friction between wheel and rail is high.

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