If all goes as planned, in about one year, MTA Long Island Rail Road will be testing a prototype “BEMU” (battery-electric multiple unit) that operates on third-rail power or batteries on the 13-mile, non-electrified Oyster Bay Branch. The program, a venture with Alstom, will be North America’s first test-of-concept of this application on commuter railcars. LIRR’s prototype BEMU will be a two-car Bombardier M7 married pair, with four of the car-set’s eight traction motors (one per axle), which normally draw power from 750 VDC third-rail, retrofitted with battery propulsion. LIRR had begun discussions with Bombardier on the project prior to Alstom’s acquisition of Bombardier; the program is now an LIRR/Alstom venture.
The $850,000 program has several steps; LIRR and Alstom will commence work within the next month. In the first phase, expected to last eight months, technicians will evaluate specifications for batteries and where they could be placed aboard M7 cars. They will study the physical characteristics of the Oyster Bay Branch and the Port Jefferson Branch, including grades and distances between stations, and evaluate sites for recharging stations. Upon successful completion of the analysis, technicians will retrofit one M7 pair to operate on battery power in deadhead service (without passengers) on the Oyster Bay Branch between East Williston and Oyster Bay. The outcome of these tests will enable LIRR to evaluate the number of M7 car-sets that could be retrofitted, and when and which trains in revenue service could be converted to BEMUs.
“Part of the analysis will tell us if we need additional charging stations for longer distances, how fast can a battery recharge in a 60-second station stop, and if we decide to go further, how many charging stations would be required,” LIRR President Phil Eng said. If the test period without passengers is successful, LIRR said it would then be able to operate revenue trains, providing passengers with a one-seat ride between Oyster Bay and the railroad’s terminals at Penn Station New York and/or Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
In addition to the Port Jefferson Branch, LIRR’s two other non-electrified branches—Montauk and Ronkonkoma—would be evaluated in the future, as well as the feasibility of the battery technology and the ability to retrofit existing trains. “If we have the ability to improve service on the Oyster Bay Branch, that [will] improve service on [the other branches],” Eng noted. Longer-term, if the pilot is successful, “embracing new technology might allow us to essentially electrify the entire railroad without the need for billions of dollars in massive capital investments,” he added. “People have been talking about extending electrification to various segments of the railroad for generations. The MTA is already transforming the LIRR through East Side Access and Main Line Third Track; this is potentially a no-less-profound transformation for the rest of the railroad. Everybody benefits.”
This program will be the first test of hybrid battery/third-rail-electric commuter railcars in North America. The technology is already in use in North America, albeit on much-smaller light rail vehicles and streetcars that have dramatically different operating characteristics and requirements than commuter rail, in terms of tractive effort, maximum operating speed (typically 80-100 mph) and acceleration/braking curves. It’s also in use overseas in regional rail applications, but those vehicles are still comparatively less massive than North American FRA-compliant commuter railcars.