Hungary’s first hybrid locomotive to be tested soon

The first electric hybrid train, ordered by the company Rail Cargo Hungaria from the Chinese manufacturer, will soon arrive in Hungary. The pandemic motivates railway companies to develop and change their technologies all over Europe and Hungary will not be an exception.

Rail Cargo Hungaria has ordered two hybrid relief engines and two hybrid yard locomotives from the world s largest rolling stock manufacturer company, the Chinese CRRC.

The first locomotive has been manufactured, it is on its way to Europe, and its testing will take place soon in Hungary.

 – Magyar Nemzet received a response of the rail freight company.

The vehicle was developed by the engineers of the world’s largest rolling stock company in Zhuzhou, and the production is carried out in the factory located in the province of Hunan.

The contract signed in 2019 contains the parameters given by Rail Cargo Hungaria based on which the company CRRC develops the electric hybrid and zero-emission yard locomotives and the high-capacity relief engines. For now, only two vehicles of both types are being manufactured. Still, if the machines fulfil the expectations of the company, the possibility is given for the production of an additional number of 20+20 locomotives.

Imre Kovács, a member of the board of Rail Cargo Group, has recently said on an event that

“the long-term plan of the group is to acquire 200 hybrid yard locomotives altogether.” 

The first yard locomotive was finished in September, the production of the rest is currently in progress.

Hybrid technology is relatively new in the field of railway transportation, but since the EU will not support the purchase of diesel engines in the future, new solutions need to be found.

Advantages of hybrid machines are the most significant when the train has to run a distance without overhead wires. In this case, the locomotive obtains its power from the so-called Last Mile Power Package accumulator. Cargo shipping trains running with an electric locomotive on a trail equipped with overhead wires can transport a huge amount of cargo on a long-distance in an economical way. However when they arrive to their destination they need to switch as side-tracks, logistical parks and train stations can only be reached by diesel power. In practice, this means the changing of the locomotive, which is, of course, less useful as it requires extra time, money and staff.

The Last Mile hybrid-electric train is capable of running on an open trail using the overhead wires while, when needed, transporting cargo on tens of kilometres using its accumulator to get the shipment to the charging location.

These hybrid engines are the alternative for the diesel ones, thus preventing pollution caused by the usage of petrol.

At the event mentioned above, Imre Kovács also said that the pandemic would decrease shipping results of this year by 30-40%, of a company otherwise having an average of 2.3 billion euros profit. The past year the group had transported more than 105 million tons of cargo with their half a million trains, they keep on working despite the pandemic while securing safe working conditions to 9000 workers in 18 countries.
Norbert Körös, general manager of Rail Cargo Hungaria, added that the company with its 2000 workers and 30 million tons of cargo transported every year makes up t4% of total Hungarian railway transportation.

80% of the total traffic of the company happens outside of the country, for this reason, workers of Rail Cargo Hungaria work on almost every border crossing gate which requires a significant source of manual force and money. Thanks to the newly introduced technological change, workers will not need to exit the country or go to the other side of the border stations , but they will mutually resolve the tasks with the partner railways. This change is already in effect on the borders with Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia and under preparation with the Romanian, Croatian and Serbian borders.

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Source: Magyar Nemzet