DB Netze: Battery-Powered Trains as a Diesel Alternative

DB NETZE is giving some insights into the future at the transport logistic 2019 trade fair in Munich. Where routes without overhead lines are often still bridged with diesel operation today, trains could soon be running on battery power. More in the video.

Battery-powered train as an alternative to the diesel locomotive

Battery-powered trains on the rails with Deutsche Bahn? DB NETZE shows that it provides solutions for battery-powered trains in rail transport. Electricity via the overhead line - that's what we already know. But a battery-powered train?

Train services: Electricity instead of diesel even without overhead lines

Around 60 percent of German railroad lines are equipped with overhead lines - leaving 40 percent of the network that is not electrified. Today, these lines are operated with diesel locomotives. DB NETZE is now showing that there are solutions for charging batteries with electricity. Traditionally, the train draws its power from a pantograph and in future this could also be used to recharge the battery of a battery train.

Battery train charged in a few minutes

Small sections of overhead lines (a few hundred meters) are set up in the station and converted directly from the upstream grid into traction current and then fed in to recharge the batteries. And: the charging process does not take hours, but only a few minutes - because only as much power needs to be drawn as is required for the next section of track.