The Overhead Wire Daily | Electrify Me

I’ve been having a really hard time lately with a lot of announcements related to transportation electrification that tout a battery powered vehicle, especially trains, as if electrification of vehicles is a new and novel idea. We’ve had overhead wires for over 100 years and we operate them in a lot of cities as do many other countries.

That’s not to say that we’re not immune from touting overhead wire power vehicles as “firsts” either as California’s Senator Alex Padilla touted Caltrain’s recent electrification as “the first electric commuter train in California history.” Extreme eyeroll. Shh no one tell them about the Key System or the Red Car or the Sacramento Northern etc etc. We have made improvements in vehicle technology and there are vehicle weight and design best practices that can be implemented, but let’s not pretend we didn’t string wires through the Rocky Mountains for The Milwaukee Road.

Around the world electrification of railroads continues. India has electrified its whole train network of over 38,000 miles, with 45% of it getting done in just 5 years. And recently here in the Bay Area as we mentioned above, Caltrain started operating under overhead wires which I hope helps move the discussion forward. My biggest question is wondering why we continue to think that carrying our fuel onboard is a good idea? In addition to moving the vehicle, you have to push around the battery or the hydrogen and worry about fueling which is not an efficient use of time.

We chatted about these ideas recently with Adriana Rizzo of Californians for Electric Rail and I still just am baffled by officials that eschew the most efficient and effective proven existing technology and instead chase hydrogen or electric batteries. And if we did choose overhead wires, we don’t need to use an inefficient system based currently on fossil fuels to create hydrogen, nor worry about where the rare earth metals are sourced from.

I realize a lot of this is a case of politics and political will and in some instances a lack of knowledge. Wires are visually displeasing to some people and the upfront capital cost can be a bit of a barrier. But if we want to create more efficient, proven, and sustainable systems, we should start looking at what works now.

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