FRANCE: Commercial trials with a hybrid multiple-unit featuring conventional electric, diesel and battery traction were launched in the Grand Est région on July 15. The train will operate on the Strasbourg – Sarreguemines route until November 24, during which tests will also be undertaken using hydrotreated vegetable oil instead of diesel.
The train represents the practical outcome of a €16∙8m development project launched in 2018 by SNCF and Alstom using finance and assistance from the Grand Est, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie and Centre-Val-de-Loire regions. Half the diesel engines in the four-car Regiolis trainset were replaced by lithium-ion batteries fitted at the CAF factory in Reichshoffen in 2021, after which the trainset underwent a lengthy series of trials.
Regenerative braking is used to charge the batteries, with energy recovery rates of 90% and above, so helping to meet the project’s objective of cutting fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by around 20%. The train is able to run for short distances using battery power alone.
Permission to operate the train in commercial service was granted by safety regulator Etablissement Public du Sécurité Ferroviaire in November 2023. After driver training and staff familiarisation, SNCF placed the train in service for four months in Occitanie on routes from Toulouse to Mazamet and Rodez. It then moved to Nouvelle-Aquitaine before commencing trials in Grand Est.
Grand Est President Franck Leroy welcomed the train’s début and said that the région was ‘proud to participate in this promising project’.
