Electrification, battery trains, third rail – Finding solutions for South Western Railway’s network

Electrification and battery technology are never far from discussions about decarbonisation of the railway. There are a number of solutions, including discontinuous electrification and battery-hybrid technology.

We visited Salisbury Traincare Depot, home to South Western Railway’s Class 159 fleet. Richard speaks to Neil Drury, Engineering & Infrastructure Director for SWR about how the operator is thinking about the electrification challenge on its network.

In this episode:

00:00 Intro
01:21 How is the work on the Isle of Wight’s Island Line going?
02:35 Weather challenges at Honiton Tunnel and elsewhere
04:10 Vegetation encroachment onto the railway
05:34 Future for the West of England Line
08:21 More third rail?
11:38 Is the plan for West of England similar to GWR’s Greenford Branch plans?
13:30 Is it feasible to retrofit current rolling stock?
17:07 How about retrofitting Electric Multiple Units instead of buying new trains?
18:38 SWR could be one of the first operations to be nationalised next year…
20:28 What customers feel and will see
22:12 Introduction of Arterio trains

Credits: Thanks to Network Rail, South Western Railway and Shutterstock for images and footage for this episode.

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[cedriclynch]

Congratulations on the maintenance of the diesel multiple units at Salisbury. They have become more reliable than they were when they were first introduced, and you would not guess how old they are if you did not know. They are very comfortable and have large windows well-placed in relation to the seats (as long as you go in standard class).

There was a proposal to electrify the Uckfield line about 25 years ago, at the time when the operators felt the need to replace the 1950s Southern Region diesel-electric multiple units. Quotes were obtained from several engineering companies and they were all ridiculously high, not out of keeping with the cost of building a completely new railway rather than installing third rails on an existing one. The operators abandoned the idea of electrification and ordered new diesel multiple units.

[stdaybreaker]

They could solve the issue of lower demand for their trunk services very easily; drop the prices!

[urbanmess]

V interesting as a user of the west of England line from Salisbury it will be nice to have some form of an electric train in the next few years.

[SimonPilkington-gi]

The issue of ‘smart third rail’ is electrification is actually very very clever and something surely to be taken forward. On a route like the Salisbury and through to Exeter is where electric passenger trains are not at a huge frequency (maybe 2tph) so having the juice off for the majority of the time really is reducing risk massively. Could a train based activation system work where its passage turns on the electricity in advance of actually traversing that section.

[chrisgrose]

All interesting stuff, especially for those of us on lines like the Uckfield Line - which has diesels running on electrified lines between Hurst Green and London Bridge.

I believe they have looked at adding batteries to the class 377s. Uckfield being within battery range of Hurst Green (just apparently). It’s rumoured the issue they found was running the new hybrid in multiples wasn’t going to work. Not sure why.

Incidentally there appears to be an assumption that today’s lower passenger numbers is going to remain for ever. Is that actually the case?

[Dave]

No mention of which is normally 158/8s.

[andyhooper]

But surely this guy isn't ultimately responsible for anything to do with track, electrification, trees etc - he's simply the liaison with Network Rail. And who's to say SWR will even be holding the contract in a few years.

[Beatlefan]

We're right by the SAL-EXD line (SHE-YVJ) and the timing generally is pretty good. I like the 159's and find them comfortable and overall I'd 'mark' them highly. Coming 'up' is the pain as I would wager 5/1 that we'd get stuck at Pinhoe for several minutes. The joys of single line...

As for the decarbonising, frankly I'm going to be in trouble for this, but IMHO it's complete BS. Great Britain has 0.85% of the world's population. I think anyone can work out the result of the decarbonisation as a percentage of the world's output. However, I now read that carbon makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere - is that correct?

[andrewhotston]

Class 159s are "venerable". What does that make me???
I'm a heritage human.

[lawrencejob]

Pre-Covid capacity? Is rail not recovered by now?

[iman]

I do wonder if another benefit of implementing traction batteries on existing 3rd rail EMUs may allow for a reduced peak load while on the (quite power limited) 3rd rail network, thereby potentially allowing for fewer or smaller substations to be used on new / renewed sections.

[andrewhotston]

I wonder how long it will be until one of these on-board train batteries ignites, with spectacular and potentially fatal consequences?

[andrewhotston]

I think intermittent electrification is one of the worst ideas to come out of the rail industry for many decades. It introduces a huge number of additional modes of failure, rendering rail services even less resilient than they are now.

[stepheng]

In my opinion the 25kv overhead system is the only way forward. The West of England line should be treated as a mainline instead of some sleepy branch line.

[jimmyhillschin]

I will miss the 455s on SWR. Much better designed inside than the Desiros with their power point intruding on your leg room. Also never known one break down.

[MasterMoyle]

Has anything been said on what the situation is with regards to the CDL situation with WCR and their MK1's and early MK2 coaches as it's almost breaking point now.

[karlInSanDiego]

Catenary is far more sustainable and straight forward than battery electric. Look farther to the future. Don't get caught up in innovation being the most logical solution. Train use is going to become much more prevalent. Personal motor vehicles (cars/SUVs) will be phased out as they cannot actually be produced with zero carbon emissions, meaning medium and long distance travel will try solely on rail.