Are Network Rail Losing The IPEMU Argument?
Network Rail’s preferred term for a train, that uses batteries as a range extender or to increase train efficiency, is an Independently Powered Electric Multiple Unit or for short an IPEMU!
The latest mention of the trains is this article in the Hastings Observer, which is entitled Hybrid trains alternative to electrifying 1066 country railway.
The article mentions hybrid trains and battery trains and gives a good description of the train.
Network Rail’s senior strategic planner in the south east Paul Best explained how they are proposing an ‘incremental approach’ to electrifying the railway between Ashford and Bexhill.
He said they can increase speed limits in certain places but also look into using hybrid trains with a battery so they can be used on the normal track and electric line from St Pancras to Ashford, which would reduce journey times.
But the term IPEMU is never mentioned.
When I rode the prototype, I wrote about it in Is The Battery Electric Multiple Unit (BEMU) A Big Innovation In Train Design? I said this.
A Hybrid Train
In some ways to consider this train a battery electric multiple unit is wrong, as its nearest cousin is probably the hybrid bus, such as the New Routemaster in London. In the bus the battery is charged by a small diesel engine and final drive is all-electric.
In the rest of this article, I will continue to use BEMU, but hybrid electric multiple unit or HEMU might be better. It could be argued that the general public associate hybrid with something good, so there may be sensible public relations reasons for calling the trains HEMUs.
No matter what Network Rail says, I think they’ll be called hybrid trains by the media and passengers.
Long Live The Hybrid Train…
The Anonymous Widower 
Must make sense to call them hybrid trains- HMU?
Comment by David Collier | March 21, 2016 |