UK Rail and Trains

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UK’s first rapid-charging battery train ready for boarding this weekend (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 7 months ago by als@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/rail@feddit.uk

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[–] scratchee@feddit.uk 8 points 7 months ago

This particular route wasn't electrified, they mention at the end that it's electrification was cancelled after cost overruns.

Reading between the lines, this is quite a short route, and the batteries are really not particularly impressive (more than a typical car battery, but not much more), though the recharge rate is (2000kw is impressive). Batteries are very expensive (maybe less than electrifying a line, but still very expensive), but trains are very good at lugging massive weight, so if you could afford the batteries you could probably make a battery train that went genuinely long distances (more than battery cars would ever be practical for).

Though a battery fire in such a train would be an impressive and expensive lightshow.