Drive device for railway vehicle

In conventional techniques, it is necessary to use a storage element having a large capacitance such as a lithium-ion battery and there are the problems of reduction in capacitance and cost of the system. Using a capacitor as a storage element, a path of a current flowing in a direction in which the capacitor is discharged is provided by a charge/discharge device in addition to a path of a current flowing in a direction in which the capacitor is charged by a high speed-range electric braking function, whereby a current corresponding to a difference in potential between a regenerative current (current flowing in the direction in which the capacitor is charged) and a chopper current from the charge/discharge device (current flowing in the direction in which the capacitor is discharged) is made to flow in the capacitor 7.