[ssiguy2]

ML doesn't have to relocate any stations. These suburban stations with massive parking garages also, for some unknown reason, have huge surface parking lots around them. Sell those lots to developers and bring in loads of cash to buy EMUs/battery and electrical infrastructure and get needed housing built and all the tax revenue that it will produce for their respective cities to boot.

I do agree that right now Torontonians are more concerned with accessibility of the service, frequency, and speed more than electrification itself but that doesn't change the fact that electrification was what Torontonians were promised and ML CHOOSE not to honour that agreement. Trying out some battery trains requires shockingly as I stated before, the UPX would be a great place to start. What's more, due to it's relatively short distance, the only battery recharging facility they would need would be at Pearson. They have NOTHING to lose because even if they decide battery is not a good option, they have still managed to electrify a station. I'm sure Alstom would salivate at the prospect of allowing them to borrow one of their battery trains for 6 months if they knew there could be a massive rolling stock purchase at the end of it. It would also allow them to demonstrate the potential of the technology in a NA and her colder climates. ML could easily set up the Pearson station for recharging within a couple months.

The ONLY reason they will not not try it out is because they have no intention of electrifying the system in the first place.

 

[rbt]

Is battery size really relevant to acceleration? EVs can accelerate pretty quickly-- do you think battery mass would be a serious impediment to acceleration? In an EMU with enough drive axles it shouldn't be an issue.

The amount of current you can pull is related to how many cells you can wire in parallel, and voltage is related to how many you can wire in series. To get high power, for fast acceleration, you want both voltage and amps to be fairly high and that requires a minimum number of cells.

For example, to pull 1600 Amps at 1200 Volts (2MW) using 18650 lithium cells (fairly common for large battery packs) for even a very short duration would require ~27,300 batteries. You simply can't get the performance with fewer even if you don't need 353.5kwh of storage.

 

[afransen]

The amount of current you can pull is related to how many cells you can wire in parallel, and voltage is related to how many you can wire in series. To get high power, for fast acceleration, you want both voltage and amps to be fairly high and that requires a minimum number of cells.

For example, to pull 1600 Amps at 1200 Volts (2MW) for even a very short duration would require ~666,000 AA batteries. You simply can't get there with fewer even if you don't need the energy.

Then the relationship would be the other way: a larger battery enables higher acceleration. Higher c rating also helps.

 

[rbt]

Then the relationship would be the other way: a larger battery enables higher acceleration. Higher c rating also helps.

A larger battery to some limit [you need to start adding axles] would enable higher acceleration.

Interestingly the most powerful locomotive, Shen 24, has 24 axles and provides 29MW of traction power.