Which trains make you motion sick, and why
Two kinds of train earn a motion sickness reputation. Tilting expresses lean into curves so they can run winding lines fast, and the research is clear that the tilt itself makes a minority of riders queasy. And the famous scenic railways move you with geometry instead: spiral tunnels, switchbacks, rack climbs and hours of continuous winding. This page covers both, train by train and line by line, with the mechanism behind each ride.
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The tilting-stock ladder
Ordered from the hardest-working tilt systems to the trains that never tilted. An honest note before the table: several famous tilt systems no longer tilt at all. The Class 221 Super Voyager's tilt was locked out in 2008, the ICE T ran for years with its system switched off after axle findings the same year and tilts again only on select routes, and Japan retired its notorious 381 series in 2024. A queasy reputation can outlive the mechanism that earned it.
| Train | Where | Tilt |
|---|---|---|
| 273 series (new Yakumo) | Okayama to Izumo, Japan | active tilt |
| 883 series Sonic | Kyushu, Japan | active tilt |
| Alfa Pendular | Portugal | active tilt |
| ETR 610 (Astoro) | Switzerland to Italy | active tilt |
| NextGen Acela (Avelia Liberty) | Northeast Corridor, USA | active tilt |
| Pendolino (Class 390) | West Coast Main Line, UK | active tilt |
| RegioSwinger (Class 612) | Germany, formerly Croatia | active tilt |
| X 2000 (SJ X2) | Sweden | active tilt |
| E353 series (Azusa) | Chuo Main Line, Japan | small tilt |
| Shinkansen N700S | Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen, Japan | small tilt |
| Talgo (natural tilt) | Spain and the US Pacific Northwest | passive tilt |
| Class 221 Super Voyager | Cross-country routes, UK | tilt locked out |
| ICE T | Germany | tilt locked out |
| 381 series (Yakumo) | Okayama to Izumo, Japan (historic) | tilt retired |
| Azuma (Class 800/801) | East Coast Main Line, UK | no tilt |
| Class 397 (TPE Nova 2) | Northern West Coast Main Line, UK | no tilt |
| Frecciarossa 1000 (ETR 1000) | Italy | no tilt |
| TGV | France | no tilt |
Tilt status reflects published operator and fleet information as of September 2026; each train's page carries the sources and the dated status notes.
The scenic journeys
Slow trains, big geometry. Each line's page explains what its particular ingredient, spirals, switchbacks, rack grades, tunnel sequences or plain duration, does to a sensitive inner ear, with every number traced to the operator or heritage record.
| Journey | Where | Motion signature |
|---|---|---|
| Albula line | Chur to St. Moritz, Switzerland | Spiral tunnels inside the mountain |
| Alishan Forest Railway | Chiayi to Alishan, Taiwan | Spirals, switchbacks, 6.26 percent |
| Bergen line (Bergensbanen) | Oslo to Bergen, Norway | About 180 tunnels over the plateau |
| Bernina Express | Chur to Tirano, Switzerland and Italy | Spirals, 7 percent grades, 2,253 m |
| Centovalli Railway | Locarno to Domodossola, Switzerland and Italy | 83 bridges through a hundred valleys |
| Cinque Terre line | Liguria, Italy | 51 tunnels, almost no horizon |
| Cusco to Machu Picchu (PeruRail and Inca Rail) | Sacred Valley, Peru | Switchbacks out of Cusco, then descent |
| Darjeeling Himalayan Railway | New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling, India | Loops and Z-reverses to 2,200 m |
| Douro line (Linha do Douro) | Porto to Pocinho, Portugal | River curves, 26 tunnels |
| Durango and Silverton | Colorado, USA | Narrow gauge sway, 400 ft shelf |
| Ffestiniog Railway | Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales | Britain's only railway spiral |
| Flam Railway (Flamsbana) | Myrdal to Flam, Norway | 865 m descent at 1 in 18, 20 tunnels |
| Glacier Express | Zermatt to St. Moritz, Switzerland | 291 bridges, 91 tunnels, about 8 hours |
| GoldenPass Express | Montreux to Interlaken, Switzerland | Hairpin climb above Lake Geneva |
| Grand Canyon Railway | Williams to Grand Canyon South Rim, Arizona, USA | 65 easy miles of prairie and pine |
| Hiram Bingham (Belmond) | Cusco region to Machu Picchu, Peru | Slow Pullman run, altitude story |
| Kalka Shimla Railway | Kalka to Shimla, India | About 900 curves in 96 km |
| Konkan Railway | West coast of India | About 2,000 bridges, 92 tunnels |
| Kuranda Scenic Railway | Cairns, Australia | 98 curves, 15 tunnels in 37 km |
| Mount Washington Cog Railway | New Hampshire, USA | Jacob's Ladder, 37.41 percent |
| Napa Valley Wine Train | Napa to St. Helena, California, USA | Flat valley floor at dining pace |
| Nilgiri Mountain Railway | Mettupalayam to Ooty, India | 208 curves on India's only rack line |
| Pikes Peak Cog Railway | Manitou Springs to Pikes Peak, Colorado, USA | To 14,115 ft at up to 25 percent |
| Rauma line | Dombas to Andalsnes, Norway | Descent past Trollveggen |
| Rocky Mountaineer | British Columbia and Alberta, Canada | Two daylight days through the Rockies |
| Semmering Railway | Vienna to Graz corridor, Austria | The first mountain mainline, 1854 |
| Settle to Carlisle line | Yorkshire Dales to Cumbria, England | Steady gradients, mostly gentle |
| Snowdon Mountain Railway | Llanberis to Snowdon summit, Wales | Rack and pinion at 1 in 5.5 |
| The Jacobite | Fort William to Mallaig, Scotland | Heritage steam over Glenfinnan |
| Trans-Siberian Railway | Moscow to Vladivostok, Russia | 9,289 km, about seven days |
| TranzAlpine | Christchurch to Greymouth, New Zealand | Gorge curves, then an 8.5 km tunnel |
| West Highland Line | Glasgow to Fort William and Mallaig, Scotland | Winding single track, floating moor |
| White Pass and Yukon Route | Skagway, Alaska | 3.9 percent grades, 16 degree curves |
| Yufuin no Mori | Hakata to Yufuin and Beppu, Japan | Forest winding on the Kyudai line |
Motion signatures summarise published route engineering, not a forecast for your day. More trains and lines join the list as they are researched.
Why tilting can make you queasy: the research
Tilting-train nausea is one of the better-studied corners of motion sickness. The Swedish experiments of the 1990s, run on and around the X 2000, found that symptoms track the roll and lateral motion passengers accumulate, and that backing the tilt off, compensating only part of the curve force at moderate tilt speed, provokes fewer symptoms than cancelling it completely. Later work points at tilt timing: a lean that arrives late against what the inner ear feels creates a mismatch on every curve. That is why the newest tilting trains, Japan's 273 series and Amtrak's Avelia Liberty, drive their tilt from route data rather than reaction.
- Persson R, Tilting trains: benefits and motion sickness, Proc IMechE Part F, 2010
- Forstberg J, Ride comfort and motion sickness in tilting trains, doctoral thesis, 2000
- Determinants of motion sickness in tilting trains, Frontiers in Neurology, 2017
- Cohen B et al, Motion sickness on tilting trains, FASEB Journal, 2011
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Frequently asked questions
Why do tilting trains make some people feel sick?+
An active tilt rolls the carriage into each curve to cancel the sideways force, so your inner ear feels roll while the interior around you stays visually level. Peer-reviewed studies report more motion sickness on tilting than on comparable non-tilting trains, and identify the amount of tilt compensation and the timing of each tilt against the curve as the variables that drive it. Most riders feel nothing; a susceptible minority feel it reliably.
Which famous trains still tilt, and which stopped?+
Still tilting: the Pendolino (Class 390), Japan's 883 Sonic and 273 series, Portugal's Alfa Pendular, the Swiss-Italian ETR 610, Sweden's X 2000, Germany's Class 612 RegioSwinger and America's new Avelia Liberty Acela. Switched off or gone: the Class 221 Super Voyager (tilt locked out in 2008), the ICE T (switched off after 2008 axle findings, tilting again only on select routes) and Japan's 381 series (retired from the Yakumo in 2024). Talgo stock tilts passively by suspension geometry, and the TGV, Frecciarossa 1000, Class 397 and Azuma never tilted at all.
Are the famous scenic trains bad for motion sickness?+
Most are slow, which keeps forces small; what they deliver instead is duration and geometry. The Glacier Express is eight gentle hours, the Kalka Shimla packs about 900 curves into five, the Albula climbs in spiral tunnels inside the rock, and the cog railways pitch the floor at grades up to 37.41 percent. Each line's page explains which ingredient it serves and what helps.
Are high-speed trains better or worse for motion sickness?+
Usually better. Purpose-built high-speed lines use very large curve radii, roughly 4,000 to 6,000 m on French LGV track and 2,500 m on the Tokaido Shinkansen, so the ride is steadier than winding classic line even at three times the speed. The exception is tilting trains, which exist precisely to run curvy classic lines fast.
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Details across this cluster reflect published operator, fleet and heritage information as of September 2026, not forecasts; services and tilt settings change. Train, route and operator names are trademarks of their respective owners; Dizzout is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. This page is informational and not medical advice.