If you take one fact away from this report, it’s this: Fast-charge battery trains work.
The shoes and rails allow the lineside batteries to rapidly charge the train batteries in a matter of minutes, allowing the train to continue its journey, carrying passengers to their destinations.
For the trial, the fast-charge team took batteries housed in small shipping containers – normally used as emergency power sources in hospitals – and installed them by the side of the line at West Ealing.
On the tracks alongside, GWR installed two sets of charging rails. Installation was quick, simple and with easy access, requiring no special tools and permission from only a small number of stakeholders.
In addition, the technology is completely safe. Unlike other types of electrification on the railway, the fast-charge system does not require the rails to be live all the time: They only go live during charging, when they are covered by the train.
These tools give GWR confidence that fast-charge battery trains could help deliver services across branch lines in the Thames Valley and in Devon and Cornwall, including the long line from Exeter to Barnstaple. Crucially, the results from GWR could be applied to other, similar routes across Britain.
The idea of using batteries is not new. Back in the 1950s, British Railways tried something similar in Scotland. More recently, Network Rail conducted a battery trial in 2014. What’s changed since then (and certainly since the 1950s) is the technology behind the batteries themselves. This drive has come from rail’s great rival, road transport, which can now provide electric cars driven by batteries from almost every car showroom.
Running a fast-charge battery train in normal service would adopt a different regime. Trains don’t return to depots every night but when they do it makes sense to trickle charge their batteries, just as diesel trains receive fuel in depots. But unlike diesel trains, fast-charge battery trains can be charged as they run, either from overhead wires or fast-chargers in stations.
GWR’s test-bed only runs five miles between fast charges because that’s the distance from West Ealing to Greenford and back. In other tests, it has run over 80 miles on a single charge. Modelling suggests it has the potential for much more. Clearly, replacing this sort of power draw takes longer than the 3-4 minutes tested at West Ealing and might typically take just over 15 minutes in a single charge.
“GWR has always been at the forefront of innovation, since its inception nearly 200 years ago through to today with this cutting-edge trial. I’m now eager to see how it takes this project forward to address the challenge of renewing its regional fleet, so the railway can continue to serve customers not just of today but for generations to come, and make a significant contribution to reducing harmful CO2 emissions.” Lord Faulkner of Worcester, Chair of the GWR Advisory Board
The testbed itself is a former London Underground train that was converted especially for this fastcharge project. Although it can and has carried people, it’s not our intention at GWR to use it in regular service in the long-term
Our air-monitoring equipment reveals much lower pollution on days when no diesel trains run, particularly for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), which gives us confidence that fast-charge battery trains help to cut local air pollution. They’re quieter too, peaking at around 63dB compared with a diesel train’s 93dB.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
