The long-running battery train project on Great Western Railway is set to move forward this spring, when trial operation begins on a branch line in west London. GWR took over the development of battery units based on former London Underground trains when their innovator Vivarail went into administration at the end of 2022. The tests on the Greenford branch will involve a short length of conductor rail at West Ealing station which is used to charge the batteries and is only live when a train is over it.