A new Design Standard for Railway Structures, which especially regulates the limits on the deflection of girder, the angular rotation at bridge ends and the alignment irregularity between adjacent structures taking into account the running safety and the ride comfort of railway vehicles on these structures, was recently published. The new design standard adopted the performance-based design method. It covers those limit values not only for the high speed running of Shinkansen vehicle of the maximum speed of 360 km/h but also for the vehicle's running safety criteria during earthquake. This paper briefly describes features of the new design standard.

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