Alstom targets new hydrogen trains to replace ageing DMUs
HYDROGEN trains operating in the UK could run for 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) before refuelling is required, Alstom has told RAIL.
The manufacturer has also suggested that diesel multiple units coming to the end of their life could be replaced by the new trains.
Alstom has an iLint train in Germany about to enter passenger traffic, with 14 ordered by the Lower Saxony authority for regional passenger trains. And the manufacturer has confirmed it has spoken to operators and rolling stock leasing companies in the UK regarding its plans.
Speaking to RAIL on January 19, Alstom UK & Ireland Head of Business Development and Marketing Mike Muldoon said: “The hydrogen trains do not need to be on specific routes, but as yet they will not be high speed or very high frequency inter-city routes.”
He said the trains could operate “everywhere”, with batteries which can operate at the same time as the unit is drawing power from hydrogen. The realistic ambition would be for the trains to replace diesel multiple units (DMUs) dating from the 1980s and early 1990s that are not due to be replaced in current franchises.
“The potential market is DMUs coming to the end of use,” he said. “Germany is the largest user of DMUs in Europe, and the UK is second. They are markets we are investigating.”
Hydrogen power is a solution suggested in the Great Western franchise consultation, but Muldoon would not be drawn on reports that the Thames Valley and the Far South West were likely destinations for the first trains.
“There’s a need for independent power. Realistically the UK is not looking at electrification. Could bi-mode be an option? Not necessarily.”
Muldoon added that hydrogen power complements electrification: “Nobody has said it must be 100% electrification. This is an electric train carrying electricity.”
Where possible, Muldoon confirmed that the first choice to build any vehicles would be at Alstom’s new facility at Widnes that opened last year ( RAIL 831).
On January 10, when questioned about electrification in a Commons debate, Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling said: “I think it more likely than not that we will see on the Welsh Valley lines and the Cardiff metro lines the same approach that I have taken in South Wales - that is, using hybrid technology rather than electrification.”
When challenged by Albert Owen (Labour, Ynys Mon) if this meant “dirty diesel” trains, Grayling replied: “What we are now seeing is the arrival of new technology that will transform the way our railways work. We will soon see hydrogen trains. The new generation of trains - hybrid trains - is much cleaner than its predecessors. New technology is giving us extra versatility.”
In Parliament on January 18, Grayling said of hydrogen trains: “I expect to see a transformation of technology on our railways over the coming years, with the introduction of different types of battery electric hybrid trains, and I see that as a priority. I want the first hydrogen train to operate on our rail network within a short period of time.”