GERMANY: A prototype Voltap rapid charging station for battery trains has been tested under real-world conditions for the first time
Voltap has been developed by railway electrification technology specialist Furrer+Frey and Tübingen municipal utilities company SWT.
The aim is to produce a low-cost charging point which can be installed wherever needed to extend the range of battery trains to facilitate their widespread use on currently unelectrified sections of the national rail network.
Testing away from a railway environment was followed on October 14 by the first tests under real conditions at Pfäffingen station in Baden-Württemberg. The tests used Stadler’s prototype Flirt Akku battery-electric multiple-unit, but Voltap is intended to be suitable for use with battery-equipped 15 kV or 25 kV electric trainsets from any manufacturer.
‘Voltap should become an environmentally friendly alternative for railway operators and infrastructure managers operators, so that purely electric traction can become a nationwide reality as quickly as possible’, said Ortwin Wiebecke, Managing Director of SWT. ‘You don’t have to wait for the overhead line infrastructure to be expanded at great expense and time.’
