Inauguration of a large capacity railcar (AGC).

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Bordas / SIPA

  • SNCF will be experimenting with battery trains in 2022.

  • Five regions and seven TER lines are affected by the conversion of diesel trains.

  • The driving range of the batteries will be 80 km for a lifespan of 10 years.

Trains that run on battery power.

This is the experiment that the SNCF must launch at the end of the year with five regions and the industrialist Bombardier.

The aim is to replace the diesel engines of five two-mode Large Capacity Autorail (AGC) trains with lithium batteries.

The actual commissioning is scheduled for 2023, after marketing authorization, SNCF announced Monday in a press release.

The first TER lines concerned by this technical innovation are Lyon-Bourg-en-Bresse, Abancourt-Beauvais-Creil, Bordeaux-Mont-de-Marsan, Bordeaux-Le Verdon, Bordeaux-Saint-Mariens, Nîmes-Le Grau du Roi and Marseille-Aix.

Blending in Crespin, in the North

The transformation consists of replacing the two diesel engines of the railcars with batteries.

An operation that will be carried out at the Bombardier plant in Crespin, in the North.

“We have already manufactured around 700 dual-mode AGCs on this site since the early 2000s. We have mastered the technology to control the assembly of batteries made in Germany,” said a spokesperson for Bombardier.

The driving range of the batteries will be 80 km for a lifespan of 10 years.

"They are recharged when the train is located under an electrified section or when the train brakes, which reduces its environmental footprint," says SNCF.

If the experience is conclusive, other TER could thus be transformed into ... Electric train.

“The principle seems simple, but many details have to be worked out,” admits Bombardier.

In France, trains running on diesel still represent a quarter of the 2,255 TER fleet vehicles, which sometimes travel on non-electrified lines.

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