GWR Battery-Powered Trains Could Be Used In Future
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
Battery-powered trains could be used more frequently after a successful trial by Great Western Railway (GWR).
These three paragraphs give more details.
The rail company says using former underground trains and a rapid-charging system has shown the technology could replace its existing diesel fleet.
The year-long trial was held in west London but the trains will eventually be rolled out in the Thames Valley.
GWR says it can now prove the concept works and hopes to take the initiative to government.
A couple of weeks ago, I used similar trains between Wrexham Central and Shotton stations, which I wrote about in Vivarail Trains And Wrexham Central Station – 6th June 2025.
The Anonymous Widower 
You can download GWR’s white paper from https://www.gwr.com/fast-charge-whitepaper Nothing much new there for long-standing followers of battery-powered trains, but it’s still very useful, as it’s coming from the operator’s point of view. It comes down strongly in favour of discontinuous electrification. I hope this will prove very influential.
Comment by Peter Robins | July 2, 2025 |
Thanks!
It now looks we have certainly got First Group, Hitachi, Siemens and Trains for Wales on the side of discontinuous electrification.
From what I saw at Cameron Bridge, I suspect ScotRail is too.
Comment by AnonW | July 2, 2025 |
Another thing they did with their 230 was to run it from Ealing/Greenford to Long Marston – 70 miles – with normal operating pattern of stops and gradients, and at the end the battery was still 45% charged. And it’s likely that batteries will keep on improving. Stadler said a while back that Germany could cover all its unelectrified track sections with batteries, because none of them was >85km, and batteries could easily manage that.
From what the white paper says, it looks like GWR will be sitting down with manufacturers to come up with a detailed plan for replacing their diesel routes. Whether I’ll live long enough to see these battery trains in action is quite another question …
Comment by Peter Robins | July 2, 2025 |