Trials using some modified former London Underground trains on a railway in west London are to go ahead after GWR agreed to buy up the assets from the supplier, Vivarail.
(c) Vivarail
Vivarail was a company set up to convert former District line trains to work on the mainline railway using a hybrid battery power supply, to provide modernised trains on short branch lines where electrification of the line wasn’t viable.
Unfortunately, Vivarail closed down after it entered administration last December.
This imperilled a number of Vivarail projects, including a GWR trial of the trains along the railway between West Ealing and Greenford.
Great Western Railway (GWR) says that it has agreed on contracts to buy intellectual property, rolling stock and equipment relating to the development of high-performance battery and FastCharge technology designed to support the wider introduction of battery-powered trains on the UK’s rail network.
The company has also employed nine former Vivarail staff to support the trials and project development.
GWR Engineering Director Simon Green said: “We’ve been working closely with the Vivarail team on this exciting project for some time, and we are delighted we have been able to step in and make sure its important work can continue.
“There have clearly been some setbacks that mean we will need to review the existing plans and timescales, but we will continue to work with Network Rail and the Department for Transport to get the project back on track.
“This work is a key part of our commitment to reduce the carbon emissions of our train fleet with a view to removing all diesel-only traction from the network by 2040, in line with the Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan.”
Good news that this project has been rescued.
I Love Western rail, I myself use to live In Slough. GWR Always exspermentd between, Slough, and Windsor with desial railcars, push-pull configarations.
It would be great to see this tech on the GWR Reading-Redhill North Downs line. As there are significant sections with 3rd rail power, it seems a no-brainier to charge on those sections and use batteries for the rest and get rid of the ancient diesels that currently run.
Replace 1990’s built DMU’s with 1980’s built ex-District Line stock? It’s also quite a long run. Might be better on the short self-contained branches like Slough-Windsor, Maidenhead-Marlow, Twyford-Henley.
Hopefully this also means the Marston Vale line from Bedford to Bletchley can reopen. I believe it’s been closed since Vivarail went into administration for safety reasons.
That is for London North Western to resolve, nothing that GWR have purchased is related to the Marston Vale line.
Any chance of running them on the Thames Valley local lines that GWR already operates on. Including Slough-Windsor and Eton Central, Maidenhead-Bourne End-Marlow and Twyford-Henley-on-Thames lines.
Excellent opportunity for GWR to try out battery tech with a view to ‘roll out’ on their many branches.
These trains are much quieter than the noisy 150 class diesels they are replacing on the Wrexham line. Let us not forget however, that they are now very old carriages and they ride rough as one would expect from bogies and bolsters that have spent nearly half a century on the tube. What is needed is brand new integral constructed bodies with the battery tech. Government investment and not for profit. Now we’re talking !