Alstom, the world leader in smart and sustainable mobility, is proud to announce that the world's first hydrogen train, the Coradia iLint, has recently reached a new historic milestone in Bremervörde, Lower Saxony, Germany. This train is now being used on the world's first route with passenger services running on 100% hydrogen. This regional train emits only steam and condensed water and runs with a low noise level. The 14 fuel cell powered vehicles are owned by Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LNVG). In 2012, LNVG was already looking for alternatives to diesel trains and thus gave an impulse to the development of trains in Germany. Other project partners for this world debut are the railway and transport company Elbe-Weser (evb) and the gas and engineering company Linde.
“Emission-free mobility is one of the key goals for ensuring a sustainable future and Alstom has a clear ambition to become the world leader in alternative drive systems for rail. The world's first hydrogen train, the Coradia iLint, demonstrates our clear commitment to green mobility combined with state-of-the-art technology. We are very proud to serialize this technology as part of a world premiere, together with our great partners.”
On the route between Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde and Buxtehude, 14 regional Alstom trains will run on hydrogen by evb on behalf of LNVG, to replace 15 diesel trains. They are refueled daily and 24 hours a day at the Linde hydrogen filling station. With a range of 1.000 kilometers, the Alstom Coradia iLint trainsets, which operate emission-free, can run all day on just one tank of hydrogen on the evb network. In 2018, two trains of the pre-series went through successful test runs for almost two years.
Despite numerous electrification projects in several countries, a significant part of the European rail network will become non-electrified in the long term. In many countries the number of diesel trains in circulation is still high, in Germany for example more than 4.000.
Alstom currently has four contracts for regional trains with hydrogen fuel cells. Two are in Germany, the first for 14 Coradia iLint trains in the Lower Saxony region and the second for 27 Coradia iLint trains in the Frankfurt metropolitan area. The third contract comes from Italy, where Alstom is building 6 Coradia Stream hydrogen trains in the Lombardy region – with the option of a further 8. The fourth contract comes from France, for 12 Coradia Polyvalent hydrogen trains to be distributed across four different French regions. Furthermore, the Coradia iLint has been successfully tested in Austria, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden, according to the world leader in smart and sustainable mobility.
Photo above: Alstom image bank.
