This part of ISO 2631 provides guidance on the application of ISO 2631-1 to the evaluation of the effects of mechanical vibration on the comfort of passengers and crew in fixed-guideway systems. It is intended to be used by organizations which purchase, specify or use fixed-guideway systems, to help them to understand the relationship between the design of the guideway as well as other features of the system and the comfort of passengers and crew. These guidelines establish methods for the evaluation of relative comfort between systems, as opposed to absolute levels of comfort.

This part of ISO 2631 is applicable to people in normal health exposed to rectilinear vibration along their x-, y- and z-axes, as well as rotational vibration about these (body-centred) axes. It is intended to provide guidance on the assessment of comfort as a function of motions along and about vehicle axes that produce the body motions. This part of ISO 2631 is not applicable to high-amplitude single transients which may cause trauma, such as those resulting from vehicle accidents or "run-ins" produced by "longitudinal slack action", nor is it applicable to high-amplitude vibration which may affect health.

For the purposes of this part of ISO 2631, fixed-guideway passenger systems include rail systems (heavy and light rail), magnetically levitated (MAGLEV) systems and rubber tyre metro-type systems, as well as any of the system types listed above that incorporate a tilt capability to compensate for lateral acceleration when traversing curves.

This part of ISO 2631 provides guidance on the effects of very low-frequency accelerations (0,1 Hz to 0,5 Hz) experienced as vertical forces that may cause kinetosis. These forces may be caused by combinations of curve transition, super-elevation and tilt-body technology. However, this part of ISO 2631 is not intended to give guidance on comfort implications of very low-frequency accelerations (below 0,5 Hz) experienced as lateral or longitudinal forces. Such accelerations can be generated by guideway geometry (horizontal alignment and cant).

This part of ISO 2631 gives guidance on the evaluation of ride comfort based on motion environment only.