The first battery-powered locomotive manufactured by China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) Dalian Co. Ltd was launched in Bangkok on Wednesday to aid Thailand's efforts to improve its railway service while cutting carbon emissions.
The first battery-powered locomotive manufactured by China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) Dalian Co. Ltd was launched in Bangkok on Wednesday to aid Thailand's efforts to improve its railway service while cutting carbon emissions.
The battery is better served as a backup if the overhead lines fail. Honestly China should focus much more on just the overhead trolleys and trams. They worked well in the USSR and continue to work well today. Also the costs of maintenance and infrastructure is minimal, at most needing the wiring and building tramways into the roads.
An interesting conclusion that I arrived at is that a city bus becomes more fuel-efficient than private automobiles by just carrying 6-8 people, with 10 for an accordion bus.
A significant contributor to the low fuel economy of buses is frequent stop-start. This can be addressed through less frequent stops (on some lines, there are equity issues for people with impaired mobility) and signal prioritization. Top of my dome, city buses get 3-5 MPG on average on city roads but could be cheesed as high as 8 MPG in ideal circumstances!
Given average fuel economy in the US is somewhere between 25-33 MPG, and the average vehicle occupancy is 1.5 MPG, the breakeven point goes down to 4.7-6.2 passengers! This is only based on gallons of fuel consumed though. It does not take into account embedded energy in the vehicle itself, or the fact that most passenger vehicles use gas whereas busses mainly use diesel which has 13% more energy per gallon.