{"id":704948,"date":"2026-07-22T09:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/704948\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:02:09","slug":"co-op-plans-to-run-battery-powered-trains-in-wiltshire-and-somerset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/704948\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-op plans to run battery-powered trains in Wiltshire and Somerset"},"content":{"rendered":"

The co-operative said it intended to convert either former diesel or electric trains to battery power but that the charging hubs had to be established first.<\/p>\n

“We had to go back to the drawing board and ask ourselves some very serious questions,” said Lawrie. <\/p>\n

“We came to realise we were not being ambitious enough.<\/p>\n

“It’s a case of saying, ‘What are the key railway stations in Somerset and possibly Wiltshire’ where we can establish these charging hubs with large scale lineside batteries suitable for a range of public transport options, not just rail.”<\/p>\n

He added the co-operative would now begin building a business case to present to Network Rail and the Office of Rail and Road.<\/p>\n

Previously, Go-Op said it wanted to “compete with Great Western Railway”<\/a> and offer more stops at stations such as Taunton, Weston-super-Mare, Westbury, Swindon and Frome through use of diesel rolling stock.<\/p>\n

For its new venture, Go-op is collaborating with green energy company Ecotricity.<\/p>\n

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince said: “We’ve been advocating battery-powered trains for some years now \u2013 by using them we could electrify all of Britain’s train lines and journeys, without the usual incredibly high costs of overhead lines. <\/p>\n

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to demonstrate the potential this idea has, working with Go-op and others on this very exciting project.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The co-operative said it intended to convert either former diesel or electric trains to battery power but that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-704948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}