Siemens Mobility has announced plans to build battery-powered trains in Goole, Yorkshire, to replace ageing fleets on Britain’s railway.
The manufacturer envisions that battery trains could replace rolling stock for operators such as Chiltern, Great Western Railway (GWR), Northern, ScotRail, TransPennine Express (TPE) and Transport for Wales (TfW) within the next decade.
This would mitigate the need to electrify all sections of the track to deliver zero-emission solutions. In doing so, 3.5 billion GBP could be saved and 12 million tonnes of CO2 emissions could be avoided over 35 years.
The new trains would be powered by overhead wires on electrified routes and would then switch to battery power on routes without this infrastructure. This approach would require only small sections of the track to be electrified to enable fast charging at key points. The power would be supplied directly from the domestic grid via Siemens’ Rail Charging Converters (RCCs).
Siemens Mobility has already reviewed routes across the country and identified strategic points where new overhead lines could be installed. This infrastructure, along with the RCCs could be installed in just 18 months, connecting to the local power grid using an 11kV charge. This contrasts to a high-powered 275/400kV electricity network, which can take up to seven years to install on traditional electrification projects.
“Britain should never have to buy a diesel passenger train again. Our battery trains, which we’d assemble in our new Goole factory in Yorkshire, can replace Britain’s ageing diesel trains without us having to electrify hundreds of miles more track in the next few years. So, on routes from Perth to Penzance, passengers could be travelling on clean, green battery-electric trains by the early 2030s. And the best thing is that this would save the country £3.5bn over 35 years.”
Siemens Mobility’s first battery train fleet is already in passenger service in the Ortenau region in Germany.
The trains for the UK would be be assembled at Siemens Mobility’s new Train Manufacturing Facility in Goole.
