Moving Towards A Pan-European Locomotive
This article on Global Rail News is entitled Traxx approved for entire DACH region.
The article talks about how the Bombardier Traxx Last Mile locomotive has been approved for Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH). The Global Rail News article, says this about the locomotive.
The Last Mile variant, although an electric locomotive, has a low-emission diesel engine and battery on board, allowing it to run on both electrified and non-electrified routes.
One of my first thoughts, was it’s a pity that the standard Traxx is probably two large for the UK’s small loading gauge.
But then I found this article in Railway Gazette, about a proposed UK version of the locomotive. This is said.
Bombardier believes that the Traxx P200 AC UK Bo-Bo electric locomotive fitted with a ‘last mile’ diesel engine would offer ‘a lot of value for money’ for UK operators such as Greater Anglia. Whereas the MkIII coaches used on London – Norwich inter-city services are ‘excellent’ vehicles that may last for another 20 years, the Class 90 locomotives will need to be replaced before that.
Lacchini emphasises that a 25 kV 50 Hz version of the Traxx family suitable for the UK with its small loading gauge will not require a special design to be developed. About 60% of components are common to all versions of the Traxx, one feature being the location of the main traction package in the centre of the locomotive rather than on either side of a central aisle. This makes it relatively easy to build a smaller and narrower version that would fit the UK loading gauge, Lacchini indicated.
It looks to me that Bombadier have designed a powerful family of electric locomotives, that can be used in much of Europe.
With the Class 88 locomotive also due to be delivered soon, it does appear that the UK may have a choice of modern locomtives for freight trains and fast passenger services in the near future.
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