The first battery-powered train in Europe for more than 60 years has taken its maiden voyage in Berlin. Re-introduced by Canadian company Bombardier, the electric-hybrid train hosted local government representative and the federal commissioner for rail transport on its first journey.
“Around 40 percent of the German rail network is not electrified,” said Bombardier German transportation chief, Michael Fohrer. “The Bombardier battery-operated train is an attractive option to counter that, both economically and ecologically speaking.”
The Bombardier Talent 3 was developed with $4 million worth of support from the German government. The breakthrough train uses Bombardier MITRAC powertrain that allows for various combinations of motors and batteries.
Bombardier says the version launched this week has a range of about 40 km (25 miles) on a single charge, but future versions will be able to run for up to 100 km (62 miles). Germany has big plans to wean itself off diesel trains.
They are obviously ignoring the Bombardier 379 battery trial of 3 years ago in East Anglia in their 60 years claim.
The main lesson was to make the batteries twice as big as you think you need if you don’t want to destroy them. And when you have destroyed the batteries sell them to Vivarail for their battery trials 😉
The electrical system in the Talent 3 units served as the starting point for the Aventra electrical design thinking (with some big changes / improvements on transformers.)
In 1986, I travelled in the cab of a LU 1985 battery loco from Ruislip to Ongar. Two battery locos and 5 laden hopper wagons as I recall. The purpose was to test battery endurance. We got to Ongar, but I don’t recll whether we returned on battery power or 3rd/4th rail. It was my only trip to Ongar whilst it was part of the Central line.
Well, technically the East Anglia one was a OHLE-powered train with a battery-powered capability temporarily added-on. But, by the same argument, the Bombardier train isn’t true battery-powered one either. The only true battery powered train I know of is this one (and one for the fans of a certain Red Dwarf actor).
As to having batteries with big enough storage, perhaps it is time for the train manufacturers to learn from the car manufacturers. Electric cars lie big time about being out of juice simply because smart people like Elon Musk know that a total discharge absolutely knackers modern batteries and cater for it. Conversely, if you don’t run the battery down, all the evidence is that they last a lot longer than predicted and longer than most people believe they last. So, when the car says the battery is empty* and refuses to move, it probably still has around a third of its total charge left. So double the size you think you need is about right – but then also enforce a strict discipline of not allowing them to totally run down.
* I know ’empty’ is the wrong word in English (but I think in German the German equivalent has always been used in this context). It seems that electric vehicle manufacturers and users have adopted the terminology of fossil fuel so one ‘fills up’ the battery etc.
The claim seems odd. The German Battery Multiple Units were running mainline service until the mid-90s. And even right now there are a lot of battery powered locos in use in narrow gauge mining and other industrial railways.