It’s not that horrible. 15kV 16.7Hz is still high power. And also, as the railway power network is essentially a separate network for electricity, changing all of this to the 25kV 50Hz system would be a big challenge and expensive as hell. Lastly, it’s not that clear-cut. While, yes, the weight of onboard equipment could be reduced down to a third for Transformers, you still don’t want your locomotives to be too light. They need to have some weight for tractive effort. IMO: not that bad, but still complicated to change.
You have no idea
At least the biggest country to refuse 25 kV AC electrification is gone
It’s not that horrible. 15kV 16.7Hz is still high power. And also, as the railway power network is essentially a separate network for electricity, changing all of this to the 25kV 50Hz system would be a big challenge and expensive as hell. Lastly, it’s not that clear-cut. While, yes, the weight of onboard equipment could be reduced down to a third for Transformers, you still don’t want your locomotives to be too light. They need to have some weight for tractive effort. IMO: not that bad, but still complicated to change.