Subject: EUROTRAINS NOT RELEVANT: Line-Haul and Passenger
Trains
Comment: Public Meeting to Consider the Draft 2022 Climate
Change Scoping Plan, June 23, 2022
June 21, 2022
by Phil Birkhahn, Co-Chair, Transportation Committee of San
Diego 350
Change requested p. 58, “Freight and Passenger Rail, Line
haul and passenger rail rely primarily on hydrogen fuel cell
technology, and others primarily utilize electricity”.
CHANGE “Hydrogen” to “Battery electric or
Hydrogen, depending on new analysis”, not analysis done in
2016.
Change requested, Appendix C, p. 4, Table C-1, “Line haul
and passenger rail rely primarily on hydrogen fuel cell technology,
and others primarily utilize electricity”. CHANGE
“hydrogen” to “ZEV” in all four
Scenarios.
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CARB and other agencies misinterpreted light and medium rail
service in Europe when they concluded that hydrogen trains can go
farther in our regional service than battery-powered trains.
Europe’s hydrogen trains are DESIGNED to go farther.
They are for routes that are not, or mostly not, electrified.
With some redesign, battery electric trains could incorporate
the skateboard design of batteries under the full length of
floor. As is standard for most electric vehicles.
Hundreds and hundreds of miles of battery range without recharging
would be achieved. Healthy competition between hydrogen and
battery trains would result.
In Europe, many passenger routes are not electrified but
incorporate several sections of fully electrified track used by
electrified routes. Routes that alternate electrified and
non-electrified are now served with diesel multi-units. The
battery trains on offer so far are intended to replace the diesel
units by taking advantage of the charging opportunity to be ready
for the next track section that is not electrified.
The minimal battery capacity is intended to charge and discharge
many times per day. If the battery provides 60 miles of
range, it must cycle a minimum of 10 times per day to match a
600-mile range hydrogen train.
The battery cited for one train is lithium titanate, which is
like a hybrid car battery that charges and discharges many times
each day, year after year. The downside is that it is nearly
twice as heavy as batteries in electric cars for the same
capacity. LFP batteries might be a better option.
California tracks are not electrified, so the train to take out
of Europe at first appears to be the hydrogen train. If CARB
had dug deeper, they would have found that our freight and
passenger service can probably be served just as well by battery
trains. It’s just a road not taken by Europe.
Luckily, all California commuter and regional rail uses single
diesel-electric locomotives pulling six passenger cars, plus or
minus. They all can be retrofitted by simply adding a boxcar
of batteries instead of waiting for passenger coaches to be
redesigned. The boxcar also would have power conditioning
electronics to serve the exact power requirement of the electric
locomotives.
Deploying battery electric trains in California would be
substantially cheaper than hydrogen trains, so we could do more
sooner to reduce GHG emissions.
After a respectful interval the diesel engines could be removed,
or downsized. Then the saved weight capacity could be filled with
yet more batteries!
Let’s go. Full speed ahead with battery electric
commuter and regional rail!