>>— the setting depicted looks like a commuter rail setup where I would imagine it's fairly lengthy runs of powered vs unpowered.
It says in the article - only 20-30% of the route needs to be electrified for these to work. And the batteries can be recharged at stations in 20 minutes.
"It shows that Siemens Mobility’s battery bi-mode trains would only require 20 – 30% of a line to be electrified. These trains, utilising Lithium Titanate Oxide battery chemistry, can charge their batteries to full capacity in 20 minutes whilst moving along the electrified sections or charging whilst stopped at stations."
My question is more about the transitions— how much of a bother it would be to get the pantograph up and down. Like, would you want the 20-30% of the electrified line to be a single continuous section down the middle of it, or can you have it be 30% of every block with gaps anywhere it's even slightly inconvenient to route the line?
For context, Thameslink operates a route through central London, and transitions from overhead power in the north to third-rail in the south. This happens when stopped at stations and is fairly quick - the pantograph/shoes are raised/lowered around the same time as the doors open - the dwell times seem the same as usual.
As for charging, Jago Hazzard has a video on a fast-charge trial[1] for a battery-only route. As it's using a modified tube train, I'd assume it's lighter and thus requires smaller batteries, but recharging from third-rail takes roughly 4 minutes.
It says in the article - only 20-30% of the route needs to be electrified for these to work. And the batteries can be recharged at stations in 20 minutes.
"It shows that Siemens Mobility’s battery bi-mode trains would only require 20 – 30% of a line to be electrified. These trains, utilising Lithium Titanate Oxide battery chemistry, can charge their batteries to full capacity in 20 minutes whilst moving along the electrified sections or charging whilst stopped at stations."