Alstom to Retrofit some M7's into Battery EMU's (Was:M7s at Oyster Bay!)

It's in today's 7/27/2022 Newsday if someone can link the article to this thread. Seems like it was really an environmental push to rid the LIRR of diesel service. Never mind how many people you can cram in a double decker diesel train train vs driving a car. I guess that's no good now either..

Trains News Wire covered it too. I'm kind of disappointed by this news since I was hoping for the railroad to utilize the benefits of multiple units without using the $18 million per mile price tag to electrify (meaning electrifying the 23 miles between Port Jeff and Huntington would be $414 million).

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... equipment/

NEW YORK — The Long Island Rail Road has scrapped a plan to develop battery-electric multiple-unit trainsets for use on its non-electrified lines, Newsday reports, after determining retrofitting of existing equipment is not feasible.

The LIRR and Alstom announced a partnership to develop and test the equipment on its Oyster Bay Branch in April 2021 [see “Long Island rail Road announces plan to test battery-electric equipment,” Trains News Wire, April 20, 2021]. Two electric multiple-unit cars were to be retrofitted with batteries, with the train running on third-rail power where available and batteries on the non-electrified portion of the route. The LIRR spent $850,000 on the project.

And here is the aforementioned Newsday article.

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/tra ... s-kdcsks6w

The Long Island Rail Road will not be able to install batteries on existing trains so that they can operate where tracks are not electrified, as it had hoped to do.

Fifteen months after the LIRR began testing “battery electric multiple units," which would allow electric trains to alternate between being powered by a third rail and by a built-in battery, railroad officials said tests showed retrofitting existing trains with the technology was not feasible.

The railroad performed tests on its Oyster Bay branch, which is not electrified. Railroad officials said the emerging technology could still be incorporated on future train cars.

Wait, so They were testing the B/emu, and found it didn't work?
They really need to release a report about it, as opposed to a press release.
Since Vavarail has been able to retrofit it's ex Underground cars to operate off batteries, successfully, i wonder if it's
issues with the M7 construction.

Its a dead issue. Phil Eng had his day in the sun at OB (duh) and now its over. RIP to a quest of bleeding money for nothing. Thank our lucky stars the engineers got it right this time.

So what exactly was the technical issue that killed this idea?

I've wondered that , too.
How is it that some london underground trains (from the 80s) could be converted, but these large M7s couldn't?

I think the real reason is that since the 3-track project is under budget, the LIRR might use the surplus to electrify to OB and do away with the diesels!

nyrmetros wrote: ↑Mon Oct 03, 2022 8:35 pm So what exactly was the technical issue that killed this idea?

Haven't been on this site for a while, but I spoke with a LIRR employee at a RMLI fair a few months ago and he stated that the batteries would be powering everything onboard the train, which would only give them an operating range of about 13 miles if I recall correctly. Not to mention, extra charging stations and the heavy weight of batteries on MUs affecting existing infrastructure.

So, basically gear built to the FRA weight requirements from the 40s, are too heavy to be converted to batteries, but Cars built exempted, can.