Electric Design of an Electrified High-Speed Railway System Linking the Towns of Lusaka and Kitwe in Zambia

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the proposed electrified high-speed rail system connecting Lusaka and Kitwe, Zambia. The study simulates a single-track system using six high-speed CRH 380D trains making 20 round trips during an 11-hour and 20-minute working period. Each train with a capacity of 486 passengers can carry approximately 9,720 people per day. The total energy consumption per trip was 20,976.07 kW<tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$h$</tex> over a distance of 384.75 km, resulting in an estimated total energy consumption of about 419.5 MWh for all trips. The maximum recorded power consumption was 17,102.76 kW, with the corresponding current levels reaching approximately 746 A. Voltage measurements at traction substations (TSS) remained stable in the range from 25.98 kV to 28.09 kV, which corresponded to regulatory standards. The current distribution over various sections of the path showed maximum values from 368.01 A to 512.64 A, which is significantly lower than the capacitance of the contact wire at 600 A. The results highlight the potential of the high-speed rail system to significantly reduce travel time to 1 hour 52 minutes and 2 hours 22 minutes, compared to the 7 hours 30 minutes required for bus travel. This study highlights the operational efficiency, environmental benefits and increased passenger capacity of the proposed railway system.