Great Western Railway has signed a deal with Vivarail to trial new automatic battery-charging technology on a scheduled service on its network, paving the way for battery-only trains to run in regular passenger service in the future.
The trial, supported by Network Rail, will take place on the Greenford branch line later this year and test Vivarail’s trackside fast-charging equipment in an operational setting for the first time. It is hoped that the project will demonstrate that the equipment works safely and reliably in a real-world environment.
The train has a range of up to 62 miles between charging stations on battery power and can fully recharge in only 10 minutes using Vivarail’s Fast Charge system, paving the way for long-distance travel solely on batteries. When the train arrives at a station it connects automatically to the Fast Charge and the batteries receive a charge while the train is preparing for its next journey.
The trial will take place on the West Ealing to Greenford Branch Line with the Fast Charge equipment being installed at West Ealing Station.
This is another new application for Tracklink III. The readers and beacons are responsible for automating the fast charging; as the train enters the station one beacon will initiate the deployment of the train collectors for charging and another beacon will trigger the charging process when the train is in the correct charging position.