Energy saving in Single-Track Regional Railways

Electric railway traction and constrained guidance are favourable elements for the sustainable management of transport systems. The electric motors used in traction are reversible and can easily transform mechanical energy into electrical energy. In passenger transport systems the contemporaneity of services on the same line facilitate the energy transfer from train to train. The availability of experimental measurements has allowed us to examine and quantify the energy savings obtained with the recovery of energy produced by electrodynamic braking. The measured consumptions were compared with those obtained with a simplified model. The detailed examination of the running of contemporary trains highlighted the phases in which the starting of one train overlaps with the braking of another, demonstrating the energy saving compared to isolated trains.