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UK company testing battery-powered train
If this works for trains then street cars, electric buses and lite rail could follow in the foot steps. A friend tells me much of the cost of over head wiring for electric powered vehicles comes from the junctions and other tricky over head wiring areas. Portland Streetcars now have small batteries for roaming around their non-wired storage barns.
I’d love to see a (low-floor, of course) variant operate on 42d Street in New York City. Double track, no catenary (except at the termini for re-charging), no middle-of-the-track plow pick up. Probably would have to operate at no charge to the passengers (who pays to ride the cable cars in San Francisco? No turnstile to jump! No cops on duty [thanks, Bill De Blasio]), but would be a great thing for Gotham, methinks!
Could be an answer to the question of San Jose-Gilroy power when Caltrans goes electric.
Interesting the way these things come around - the metre gauge line from Toulouse to Bologne sur Gesse in France was operated by battery powered railcars from the 1930’s to its closure in (I think) 1947. This was not some little branch line but an independent system about 90 km (~60 miles) long, with a charging station at each end. With all the technical developments since then in batteries and train control this latest (!!) idea could be a real goer, and cost saver.