Financing For 135 Hybrid Trainsets Agreed
The title of this post, is the same as this article on Railway Gazette International.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The European Investment Bank agreed a €450m financing package on July 23 which will support Trenitalia’s plans to order 135 electric-diesel-battery hybrid regional multiple-units at total cost of €960m.
The trains are from Hitachi’s Caravaggio family and will be built in their Italian plant at Pistoia. Their operation is described in this sentence.
They will use conventional overhead electrification where available, with ‘cutting-edge’ engines for operation onto non-electrified routes as well as batteries to eliminate emissions for the ‘last mile’ and in urban areas.
That sounds extremely sophisticated to me.
Is The Powertrain Technology Transferrable To The UK?
I have republished this post with a link to the original article, as it occurs to me, that Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway. LNER and other train operating companies could be in need of a train with a sophisticated Diesel/Electric/Battery Hybrid powertrain.
So will Hitachi be using a powertrain like this in the UK?
Great that the bankrupt Italians can have the confidence to order Hybrids
let us hope GWR will follow suit.
Nick P. Lennard
Comment by Nick Lennard | July 27, 2020 |
Hitachi are behind both designs, although they are very different, with the Italians being double-deck and slower.
Comment by AnonW | July 28, 2020 |