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  • The Railway Magazine

    ALTERNATIVE FUELS FOR TRAINS

    Jul 01, 2018 7 minutes

    THE UK Government has announced it wants to phase out diesel-powered trains by 2040 – and the race is on to find alternatives power sources.

    The use of hydrogen fuel cells to power trains is being trialled in Germany with the ‘iLint’ unit, and this technology will be soon be on test in the UK, with Alstom planning to convert a Class 321 multiple unit.

    Battery-powered trains have been used with varying degrees of success for many years, with the first experimental battery-powered trains appearing more than 125 years ago in the 1890s.

    Midland Metro has just started tests with its CAF ‘Urbos’ tram, which have been retrofitted with batteries, and plans to use them on the new Edgbaston extension of the Birmingham network.

    Vivarail has developed a two-car, battery-powered Class 230 unit, due for a launch in June, followed by tests on the national network later in the year, with batteries being charged at station stops.

    Train manufacturers around the world are looking at other, sometimes less obvious, options to power trains. All of them, however, have one thing in common – they produce electricity in one way or another to power

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