The Anonymous Widower

Hybrid Regional Train To Be Tested

The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.

This is the first two paragraphs.

Plans to convert a TER regional multiple-unit into a prototype overhead electric, battery and diesel hybrid unit were announced by SNCF and Alstom on September 17.

The Grand Est, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie regions and Alstom are to spend €16.6m converting and testing the Régiolis unit, which will be taken from the Occitanie region’s fleet. Two of the four diesel engines will be replaced with high-capacity lithium-ion batteries able to store regenerated braking energy.

It looks to me, that each Régiolis train has four slots in which to put a diesel engine. So are they doing what Stadler are doing with the tri-mode Flirts for the South Wales Metro and allowing operators to fill each slot with a diesel engine and generator or a lithium-ion battery.

Hopefully, the modules are designed, so they are just Plug-and Play.

The train’s computer would decide what power is best and swap between electric/diesel and battery power automatically or under the control of the driver.

The concept is simple and it could have some interesting outcomes.

• The ability to use regenerative braking on an electrified line, that can’t handle the reverse currents.
• Extending routes efficiently on non-electrified lines, where noise and pollution could be a problem.
• As battery technology gets better and can hold more energy, all diesel engines might be replaced with batteries.

It does seem that Alstom are taking battery trains seriously.

It also appears that the number of existing trains, that are being improved by the addition of batteries is growing.

September 19, 2018 - Posted by AnonW | Travel | Alstom, Batteries