#battery-trains

#battery-trains

The train is an ex-District line train that has been converted to run on battery power, and has been running trials to see if that would be a viable way of replacing polluting diesel trains on branch lines where full electrification of the railway is not viable. Although aimed at shorter branch lines, the old tube train had enough battery power for much longer trips, such as between Reading and Paddington.

The Great Western Railway (GWR) train, a specially adapted former District Line train, travelled overnight along a 200-mile (322km) route from Reading and back again via London Paddington and Oxford. It reached 140 miles (225km), breaking the record on Brunel Maidenhead Bridge at about 04:00 BST. The previous record of 139 miles (224km) was set by German train company Stadler Deutschland in Berlin on 10 December 2021.