Self-charging trains soon to get on fast track

A project developing “self-charging trains” is among the winners in a £5 million government competition to transform the future of transport.

The Department for Transport (DFT) said Echion Technologies, a Cambridgeshire-based company, is creating train batteries that could charge from overhead wires. The train would then use the power to continue its journey on non-electrified sections of track. Other projects awarded a share of more than £5 million from the Dft’s First of a Kind 2002 competition include a programme by Thales Ground Transportation to develop sensors which detect when a person is approaching the tracks.