During a long-distance journey, an unmodified serially-produced Coradia iLint train covered 1,175 kilometres without refuelling the hydrogen tank, only emitting water and operating with very low noise levels. The vehicle used for this journey comes from the fleet belonging to LNVG (Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen), the transport authority of Lower Saxony. It has been in regular passenger operation on the network of evb (Eisenbahnen und Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser GmbH) since mid-August. Alstom partnered with the gas and engineering company Linde for the project.
“We are pleased to be leading innovation in this area as the first railway manufacturer in the world to offer a passenger train based on hydrogen technology. With this journey, we have provided further proof that our hydrogen trains have all the prerequisites to replace diesel vehicles,” said Henri Poupart- Lafarge, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Alstom. “We are immensely proud of our pioneering work in introducing hydrogen to rail transport.”
There is great international interest in sustainable mobility. In addition to the contract with LNVG for 14 Coradia iLint trains for operation in Lower Saxony, Alstom has been commissioned to supply 27 Coradia iLint trains for use in the Frankfurt metropolitan area. Outside Germany, Alstom is building 6 Coradia Stream hydrogen trains in the Italian region of Lombardy, with an additional option agreed for eight more vehicles.