Refuelling system inaugurated on hydrogen train line

The 100km route in Lower Saxony – connecting Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde and Buxtehude - will become the first in the world to operate a fleet of hydrogen-powered trains when they replace 15 diesel trains running there.

The trains – fuel cell variants of the diesel-powered Lint - are owned by Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LNVG) and will be operated on the Elbe-Weser railways and transport company’s (evb) network, where the trains will travel at speeds of 80 to 120km/h, with a maximum speed of 140km/h.

According to Linde, the Coradia iLint trains will be able to run for 1,000km on a single refuelling. The company’s hydrogen refuelling system - made up of 64 500-bar high-pressure storage tanks, six hydrogen compressors and two fuel pumps - has a total capacity of around 1,600kg of hydrogen per day, making it one of the largest hydrogen refuelling systems. According to Alstom, a further production facility will use electrolysis and regeneratively generated electricity to make hydrogen.