Make way for hybrid TERs. A train modified to operate with batteries in addition to electric and diesel modes will be launched next year in commercial service, Alstom, SNCF and four regions involved in the experiment announced on Wednesday. This decision follows tests deemed “conclusive” on the TER Regiolis in the Occitanie region, which has already traveled 9,000 km with a car transformed into a laboratory.
The experimental TER should now be put into service in the second quarter of 2023 in the participating regions: Centre-Val-de-Loire, Grand-Est, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie. Half of the diesel engines will thus be replaced by an energy storage system made up of lithium-ion batteries, which will allow the trains to consume 20% less in diesel mode without affecting performance and to run for around twenty kilometers in using only batteries, in addition to being less noisy.
SNCF wants to phase out diesel by 2035
The experiment, which is part of the search for solutions aimed at reducing the cost of operating trains on routes that are not end-to-end electrified, has so far cost 16.8 million euros. The idea is to combine the power supply by catenary, the start-up of thermal engines and the use of the energy stored in the batteries.
The SNCF, which intends to get out of diesel by 2035, is also interested in trains that combine power supply and batteries with hydrogen and biofuels.
