What Next For Class 385 Trains?
Scotrail have ordered a fleet of Class 385 trains, which will be built by Hitachi at Newton Aycliffe in the North-East of England.
If you look at Scotrail’s network, there are a lot of lines, where new trains will be needed in the next decade.
Most of these lines are not electrified, so will the Class 385 train, be available in a version say, that would handle lines like the Borders Railway?
Electrifying all lines will be costly and the Heritage Taliban, may object to overhead gantries marching all over Scotland.
Class 800 And Class 801 Trains
The Class 800 trains are electro-diesel trains with a range depending on the size of the fuel tanks, whereas the Class 801 trains are the pure electric version.
Like the Class 385 trains, they are members of Hitachi’s A-Train family, so I suspect that if asked to supply a bi-mode Class 385 train, that Hitachi know the route to create such a train.
Trains With Batteries
I have written two posts about the Japanese using batteries in electric trains.
- Japanese Trains With Batteries describes how some Tokyo Metro trains have batteries to get them to the next station, in an emergency situation.
- Battery Trains In Japan describes how battery trains are to be used on the OGA Line.
The Japanese technology, doesn’t seem as comprehensive as that I wrote about in Bombardier’s Plug-and-Play Train, but I’m sure that Hitachi must be thinking about trains with batteries,
Conclusion
I am inevitably drawn to the conclusion, that Hitachi will come up with a train, that can run say between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, substantially under its own power, aided by overhead electrification where it exists.
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