Magnetorheological (MR) dampers emerge as highly advantageous semi-active mechanisms for vibration control within engineering systems, offering superior reliability and cost-effectiveness compared to active actuators, thus underscoring their significance in practical implementation. This research delves into the analysis of ride comfort in rail vehicles employing semi-active suspension control, examining its impact on the vertical dynamics of the train. The study employs the Harmony Search (HS) algorithm to optimize the gains of a proportional integral derivative (PID) controller, leveraging the self-adaptive global best harmony search method (SGHS) for its efficacy in minimizing tuning time and achieving optimal objective function values. The efficacy of the proposed controller is assessed through simulation of a quarter-rail vehicle model featuring six degrees of freedom (6-DOF) using MATLAB/Simulink software. Analysis of the simulated results demonstrates that the optimized PID controller markedly enhances ride comfort when compared to both passive suspension systems and conventional PID control strategies.