Electrification, battery trains, third rail – Finding solutions for South Western Railway’s network

Electrification and battery technology are never far from discussions about decarbonisation of the railway. There are a number of solutions, including discontinuous electrification and battery-hybrid technology. We visited Salisbury Traincare Depot, home to South Western Railway’s Class 159 fleet. Richard speaks to Neil Drury, Engineering & Infrastructure Director for SWR about how the operator is thinking about the electrification challenge on its network. In this episode: 00:00 Intro 01:21 How is the work on the Isle of Wight’s Island Line going? 02:35 Weather challenges at Honiton Tunnel and elsewhere 04:10 Vegetation encroachment onto the railway 05:34 Future for the West of England Line 08:21 More third rail? 11:38 Is the plan for West of England similar to GWR’s Greenford Branch plans? 13:30 Is it feasible to retrofit current rolling stock? 17:07 How about retrofitting Electric Multiple Units instead of buying new trains? 18:38 SWR could be one of the first operations to be nationalised next year… 20:28 What customers feel and will see 22:12 Introduction of Arterio trains Credits: Thanks to Network Rail, South Western Railway and Shutterstock for images and footage for this episode. Subscribe: If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. Better still, hit that subscribe button. It supports the channel and means you'll be notified whenever we publish something new. Membership: If you want to see even more from Green Signals, including exclusive content, become a member and support the channel further too. YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GreenSignals/join Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/GreenSignals Green Signals: Website - http://www.greensignals.org Newsletter - http://www.greensignals.org/#mailing-list Follow: X (Twitter) - https://twitter.com/greensignallers LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/green-signals-productions-ltd Instagram - https://instagram.com/greensignallers Credits: Presenters - Nigel Harris (@railnigel on X) & Richard Bowker CBE (@SRichardBowker). General Manager: Stef Foster (@stefatrail)