Traction electricity

What this is

The electricity the train draws, at each country's price, plus what the infrastructure manager charges for delivering it through the overhead line.

Two separate things are priced: How much energy the train uses comes from a model calibrated against Deutsche Bahn Trassenfinder technical runs: start-stop energy for the train's weight, rolling resistance over the distance, air resistance rising with length and the square of speed, and the on-board supply that keeps heating, air conditioning and light running all night. What that energy costs comes from each country's traction electricity tariff.

Like track access, electricity is split by the clock where a country has a night tariff, which is the case only for Austria, Switzerland and Croatia.

The traction electricity drawn, at each country's price, plus the catenary supply charge.

The formula

$$C_{energy} = \sum_{seg} \sum_{c \in seg} \left[ E_{kWh,c} \left( (1-\nu^{E}_{c}) p_{c} + \nu^{E}_{c} p^{night}_{c} \right) + d_{c} \left( e_{c} + e^{gt}_{c} m_{gross} \right) \right]$$

	Symbol	Meaning	Unit	Where it comes from
Input	E_kWh,c	Energy used in the country (from the energy model)	kWh	energy_per_leg
Input	p_c	The country's day traction electricity price	€/kWh	track_energy_price_eur_kwh
Input	p^night_c	Its night-band price, where the tariff is banded	€/kWh	track_energy_price_night_eur_kwh
Input	nu^E_c	Share of the country leg billed at the night rate	–	energy_night_share
Input	e_c	Charge for using the catenary and traction power-supply installations, per train-kilometre	€/train-km	track_energy_catenary_eur_train_km
Input	e^gt_c	The same charge where the country levies it on the weight moved instead	€/gross-tonne-km	track_energy_catenary_eur_gross_tonne_km
Input	m_gross	Gross weight of the whole consist, coaches plus locomotives	t	computed upstream
Input	d_c	Kilometres run in the country on this segment	km	computed upstream
Result	C_energy	Annual traction energy cost	€/year	—

Feeds into: infrastructure_total_eur

Found a mistake?

This documentation describes a model that is still being built, and some of it will be wrong. If a number looks off, a source is missing, or an explanation does not hold up, tell us — it reaches the working group with the page you were reading.