There has been much publicity over the last few months about the use of batteries as a propulsion energy source on trains. For example, in the UK, the first modern battery powered passenger train entered service on the extension from Kirkby to Headbolt Lane on 7 October 2023; Rail Operations Group’s Class 93 locomotives will feature a battery pack as well as diesel power and 25kV operation from the OLE; and Hitachi is testing a tri-mode conversion of a TransPennine Express Inter-City Express train adding a battery pack instead of a diesel generator on one car.
In addition, LNER has ordered 10 tri-mode (electric-diesel-battery) inter-city trains, the forthcoming Piccadilly line trains have a battery ‘get to the next station’ facility and, in Birmingham, some of the CAF trams have batteries to serve the extension to Edgbaston Village. All of these are hybrid trains/trams and there will be more to come. In Germany, Siemens has launched a fleet of battery hybrid trains (see later).
A recent Railway Industry Association (RIA) paper, which David Shirres reviews elsewhere in this issue, envisages a lot more bi-mode operation, and these trains will generally charge their batteries whilst running under OLE, although sometimes short OLE sections may be provided at, say, reversing points, to charge batteries during a train’s layover.
Continue to the full article: Battery electric and battery hybrid trains