We only are using the batteries on one route so it isn't that awful of an idea. Also elongated muskrat can go to hell.

Freight railroads are also looking into them (mostly for hump yards, but some in road service) and they're so stupid because half of the time they don't end up being lower cost than catenary wire electrification.

And with the state of railroad safety in our country, I reallllllllly don't want to see our locomotives filled with something that can only be extinguished by burying it. (Oh, and lithium can just spontaneously reignite, too, so even after the fire is out, it's not actually out.)

Then there's the fact that lithium batteries are extremely expensive to refurbish, so with the loading and unloading that a locomotive experiences, when the battery inevitably loses charge, you basically have to pay for an entirely new powerplant.