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Comment by Bairfhionn | Hacker News Reader

Maintenance/construction costs? Is my guess. I've driven lots of routes (especially rural) with Diesel trains. It's not rare (in Germany).

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Probably cheaper to use batteries at this point.

Like what's the cost per mile to install overhead wires? Comments in an online magazine says $1M/mile[1]. You can buy 5-10,000 kwh worth of batteries for a million bucks.

[1] https://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/189389.aspx

Every train needs their own battery, all trains can use the same overhead lines. Plus, in Europe, most rolling stock is electrified anyway, and diesel units are only kept around for a handful of peripheral lines. Germans are famous for not being willing to spend anything on infra, but I'm not so sure battery trains make sense for them. On the other hand, it may make for another nice subsidy vehicle for local industry like hydrogen trains were.

The German network is only 55% electrified on a per-mile basis. France is 53%, Portugal 49%... others like Greece are in the low 30s

EU wide it's 56%, brought up a good chunk by Scandinavia and Switzerland. Italy and Spain are the only two countries in Southern Europe over 50%.

There are a LOT of infrequently used industrial lines that see no passenger traffic, and maybe only see a freight train once or twice a day, if that.

I meant lines used for passenger traffic, which this article is about.

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