High Speed Train Research Center was founded in 1994, merged with the laboratory of Vehicle Structure Strength,Research Center of Train Aerodynamics, and Research Center of CAD/CAM. In 2003, the Key Laboratory of Traffic Safety on Track, with the High Speed Train Research Center being its principal part, was approved by the Ministry of Education.

In the past twenty years, the Center concentrates on the key technologies of rail traffic, and has formed distinctive features and achieved significant progress in train aerodynamics and multi-body coupling impact dynamics. It hasinvented the world biggest and the domestically unique “moving train model test system”, and “impact test system for rail vehicle parts”, which filled in the domestic gaps in this research area. It also has undertaken a lot of projectsfor speed improvement, high speed train, and intercity traffic, etc., including National High-tech R&D Program of China (863 Program), the National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Science and Technology Major Project, and projects sponsored by the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Education and Hunan Province. The Center has won 1second prize of State Technological Invention Award, 2 second prizes of National Scientific and Technological Progress Awards and 6 provincial-level Awards as the first or sole completion unit, and won 1 special prize of National Scientific and technological Progress Awards as a participant.

The Center mainly cultivates students specialized in applied engineering of transportation vehicles, such as "safety protection technology of multi-body coupled collision for trains" and "theory and technology of train aerodynamics".Currently there are 16 Ph. D. advisors and 22 master advisors. Being well supported by the research platforms and numerous projects, students studying in the research center are trained systematically, from the basic theoretical study, to scientific research, and to engineering applications. The total number of post-doctors, Ph. Ds, and masters graduated (out of station) from the center is nearly 150, most of whom are serving as backbone in the national railway research institutes, related industries, and enterprises.

In terms of undergraduate education, besides being responsible for a large number of classroom teaching for undergraduates majoring in information and engineering of transportation equipment, the Center has also opened a number of experimental projects specifically for undergraduates, and guided the undergraduate students to actively participate in various innovation and technology competitions. The senior designs are also combined with practical research projects, in order to provide the undergraduate students with opportunities of understanding and participating inthe cutting-edge research of their major, as well as to further develop their abilities of practice and innovation.