Flirt Akku Battery Multiple-Unit Unveiled
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in Railway Gazette International.
This is the first paragraph.
Stadler has officially unveiled the prototype Flirt Akku, a version of its Flirt family of electric multiple-units which is equipped with a battery to permit operation on non-electrified or partly-electrified routes.
So it looks like another train with batteries, that joins the following, that have been announced in recent months.
- Angel Trains’ Class 165 Hydrive, that I wrote about in Class 165 Trains To Go Hybrid.
- Bombardier Talent 3, that I wrote about in Bombardier Introduces Talent 3 Battery-Operated Train.
- Class 230 train, that I wrote about in Battery Class 230 Train Demonstration At Bo’ness And Kinneil Railway.
- Porterbrook Class 350/2 Battery/FLEX, that I wrote about in Porterbrook Makes Case For Battery/Electric Bi-Mode Conversion.
There are also several projects using MTU Hybrid Power Packs.
What new projects will emerge in the next couple of years?
Bombardier Introduces Talent 3 Battery-Operated Train
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on InsideEVs.
This picture of the train is from Bombardier’s web site.
This is said.
Bombardier recently presented the Talent 3, which according to the press release, is the first of its kind to enter passenger operation in Europe in over 60 years.
The first prototype has a range of 40 km (25 miles), but the second one scheduled for 2019 will go 100 km (62 miles) on a single charge.
There’s even a nifty little video.
All the features and benefits of the train are detailed.
- Bridging gaps in electrification.
- Modular batteries, so more can be added to increase range.
- Regenerative braking to save energy.
- Lower infrastructure costs.
- Electric instead of diesel trains under city centres.
- Low noise.
- No CO2 emissions.
- Low cost of ownership.
But this is all about a Talent 3 train, that is designed to a Continental loading gauge. Wikipedia says this about the design.
The Talent 3 is based on the earlier Talent and Talent 2 designs, with a wider carbody, larger doors, and a lower floor to increase capacity and improve passenger flow at station stops. Depending on the intended service pattern, the Talent 3 can be specified with either a 160 kilometres per hour (99 mph) or 200 kilometres per hour (120 mph) top speed. Talent 3 trainsets can vary in length based on customer requirements—ÖBB ordered six-car sets with a passenger capacity of 300, while Vlexx ordered three-car sets that carry up to 160 passengers.
The picture and the video look like a three-car train.
How Large Are The Batteries On A Talent 3?
What do we know about the train?
- It appears to have three cars.
- According to this page on the Bombardier web site, the train has four batteries.
- I estimate that according to weights in Wikipedia, a three-car Talent weighs 86.5 tonnes
- A three-car Talent 3 can carry 160 passengers.
My calculation is as follows.
- 160 passengers at 90 Kg each with baggage, bikes and buggies weigh 14.4 tonnes.
- I’ll assume each battery weighs a tonne.
- This gives a total train weight of 104.9 tonnes.
At a speed of 160 kph, the Omni Kinetic Energy Calculator gives a kinetic energy of 28.8 kWh.
So four batteries of 25 kWh each would be sufficient to handle the regenerative braking energy.
What about the UK?
Bombardier’s equivalent product for the UK is the Aventra, which unlike the Talent 3 is a substantially all-new design, although it does use proven technology from previous trains.
It has also received six orders for a total of over 400 trains.
I have always thought, that after the successful BEMU trial with a Bombardier Class 379 train, that batteries will become an important part of rail technology and they will feature in the design of the Aventra.
You may think, that looking at the video, that we’ll have trouble with the UK’s small loading gauge putting the batteries on the roof of the train, but the actual size of batteries is not large and they can go underneath.
I sometimes wonder, If the reason for the delay of the Class 710 trains, is that when they are successfully running, Bombardier will finally come clean in the UK, about how batteries are used on the Aventra. You wouldn’t want the trains to be unreliable, so they are making sure that all systems, including the important batteries are 100 % reliable.
In Don’t Mention Electrification!, I state why I believe that the Barking Riverside Extension of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line could be built without electrification.
So I’m fairly certain that the Class 710 trains are designed to run this section of the route on battery power.
The Anonymous Widower 