Battery and accelerating-catenary hybrid system for light rail vehicles and trams

An electric train is currently one of the best solutions to urban passenger mobility challenges. However, diesel powered trains are still common in low capacity lines on which the density of traffic is insufficient to justify the high fixed cost of railway electrification. In such cases, battery driven trams present an alternative that some railway operators have been opting for. Since rail vehicles are heavy, a high capacity, high voltage traction battery will be required to provide accelerating power. To minimize the peak power that a traction battery has to supply and subsequently the required battery size, this paper presents a battery-catenary hybrid tram system in which a tram accelerates from a station under a 200-meter-long catenary and cruises with traction battery. The tram was modelled and simulated in MATLAB. The traction battery peak power was reduced from 300 kW to 100 kW. This means a significant reduction in the required battery size with just a short catenary. Suggested applications of such a system are, on shuttle lines with few stops and in countries or regions where full railway electrification would mean dominance of diesel trains.