Advances in the application of power electronics to railway traction

Building on the advancement of power electronics technology there has been an on- going evolution of railway traction equipment, both for the traction drives on board the trains or the traction power supply systems on the track side. This paper describes how systems based on power electronics have emerged and then become a standard provision in the railway industry. New systems and more powerful power electronic devices which have emerged in the past few years and applied to railway traction have also been presented. Key players and their development efforts on the application of power electronics to railway traction have also been introduced.