New Tyne & Wear trains.

[themiller]

Now that the order’s placed and announcements made, does anyone know if the new trains will be capable of working under 25kV as was originally intended in case the Network Rail line down the Durham coast was electrified for heavy rail?

 

[SeanG]

Yes

 

[hacman]

No, at least not out of the box.

This was omitted from the specification due to cost grounds. Passive provision will exist within the design for this to be added at a later date as per all modern vehicles.

Interestingly though, the trains have IP-EMU capabilities that will allow them to operate for up to 45 minutes with no power supply.

 

[swt_passenger]

No, at least not out of the box.

This was omitted from the specification due to cost grounds. Passive provision will exist within the design for this to be added at a later date as per all modern vehicles.

Interestingly though, the trains have IP-EMU capabilities that will allow them to operate for up to 45 minutes with no power supply.

Batteries? The Stadler description (linked in the Metro fleet replacement thread) only says they will be “able to accommodate” in future, strongly implying not provided on initial delivery.

 

[hacman]

Batteries? The Stadler description (linked in the Metro fleet replacement thread) only says they will be “able to accommodate” in future, strongly implying not provided on initial delivery.

Batteries is indeed what I've been lead to believe; and seems to make sense as there is no real space for a flywheel, and capacitor technology would be unlikely to give that length of runtime alone.

Nexus have said that the technology will be there from the start, to aid in situations where the power supply fails. It could be that it will be initially present in a limited capacity (say, 10 minutes runtime) to allow for evacuations and emergency provision, and that additional capacity would just need to be dropped in when it's required in a more meaningful way. Batteries are, afterall, quite heavy - so designing the system so that you don't need to load a full raft of cells to get the basic functionality when extended running isn't yet needed would be a good move, and modular design is pretty much Stadlers trademark.