A New Approach to Very-High-Altitude Land Travel: The Train to Lhasa, Tibet

The train from Golmud in Qinghai Province, China, to Lhasa, Tibet, travels for more than 14 hours at an average altitude of 4500 m, the highest point being 5072 m (16 600 ft). Therefore, passengers are potentially exposed to very severe sustained hypoxia. The enterprising solution is to increase the oxygen concentration of the air in the train from 21% to between 24% and 25% by the use of oxygen generators in each passenger car. By increasing the oxygen concentration to 25%, the equivalent altitude is reduced by about 1200 m. The engineering challenge of oxygenating the whole train is immense but has been successfully accomplished. This is an extraordinary innovation in high-altitude transportation.