ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
Building trains for a partially electrifi ed network
Jon Seddon, director of strategic programmes at Bombardier, discusses the environmental performance of rolling stock. Kate Ashley reports from Railtex 2013.
I
mproving the environmental performance of rolling stock can bring much wider benefi ts – including savings in energy, maintenance and operating costs.
That was the key message from Bombardier’s director of strategic programmes, Jon Seddon, speaking at Railtex 2013.
“This is a challenge that rail businesses are facing all around the world. This is not just a UK issue,” he said.
Energy effi ciency is a major priority for train operators today, both from an environmental and cost perspective. Rail transportation is often highlighted as the most environmentally friendly mode of mass transport, producing signifi cantly lower CO2 emissions than other modes of motorised transport such as cars or planes per passenger kilometre.
“We’re starting from a good place, but we need to keep pushing on.”
Seddon focused on how companies can improve the environmental performance of rolling stock through four key measures: reducing traction energy; switching to electric; reducing energy expended in non-traction uses; how rolling stock support services can help to reduce the number of non-passenger miles in passenger trains, and the waste that that implies.
Driving style Adopting “fairly simple” design measures such
as low mass bogies can result in 5-7% energy savings, he said, translating to huge cost savings in large fl eets.
“Reducing mass is one of the most obvious ways to tackle excess traction energy, but helping drivers drive more effectively can also afford considerable gains.
Seddon added: “This is not about moving to composite technologies, this is
stuff that’s
been around for a number of years – what’s interesting, but what is less well understood, is the impact that driving style has on energy consumption.
“In our experience, this can be maybe three times the impact of mass reduction.
“Where we might see a 60% energy reduction from mass reduction, it’s the additional 18% by giving good advice to drivers about target speeds and how they can modify their style, while still maintaining timetable performance.
“It’s indicative of the savings that are there without moving to high-risk new technologies.”
Driver advisory systems can help operators to “intelligently combine
– punctuality, reduced maintenance requirements and energy savings, for example.
They recommend coasting opportunities to drivers, and help them to make speed and acceleration decisions that will optimise effi ciency without sacrifi cing punctuality, or
multiple goals” the number of services an operator can run.
Such integrated systems are becoming “much more deliverable”, and at a signifi cantly lower cost. The business case for implementation is getting stronger and stronger all the time, Seddon said.
A partly electrifi ed network
The Government has major electrifi cation ambitions, of course – the Great Western Main Line, the Midland Main Line, the Welsh Valleys, the North West, Edinburgh-Glasgow – but even after this signifi cant programme of works is complete, a substantial proportion of the network will remain unwired.
Seddon said: “We are going to have, for the foreseeable future, a network which continues to be partly electrifi ed, albeit more so than today.
“This is not an uncommon problem; it’s a problem which exists pretty much everywhere apart from Switzerland,
and [there are]
countries with no electrifi cation whatsoever. How do you deal with a network which is partly electrifi ed, and on which we want to provide seamless journeys for passengers, that suit their needs?”
Electrifying the whole network would be incredibly expensive, and while a long-term vision, would also require a huge amount of planning in terms of civils and structures, future rolling stock, maintenance and so on.
80 | rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 13
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