International
World’s largest fleet of hydrogen fuel cell trains ordered in Germany
RMV’s subsidiary fahma issued a tender for 27 fuel cell trains throughout Europe. Now the winner has been determined: Alstom will deliver the vehicles of type Coradia iLint by the timetable change in 2022. In addition to the trains, the order also includes the supply of hydrogen, maintenance and the provision of reserve capacities for the next 25 years. Alstom offers the supply of hydrogen in cooperation with Infraserv GmbH & Co. Höchst KG, with the filling station being located on the premises of the Höchst industrial park.
Enak Ferlemann, Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, said: “The federal government supports this investment in climate-friendly mobility by assuming 40% of the additional vehicle costs incurred in comparison to diesel vehicles, as well as by providing proportional support for the hydrogen filling station. The project can serve as a model for the German transport ministry. We hope that many other projects in Germany will follow this example.”
“We are very pleased that Alstom’s zero-emission Coradia iLint regional trains will be operated in Hesse in the near future, allowing climate friendly transportation of passengers in the Taunus region. This new success, coupled with Coradia iLint’s previous success, demonstrates how trendsetting and sustainable transportation is already a reality,” commented Dr. Jörg Nikutta, Managing Director of Alstom in Germany and Austria.
“This award sets two records: With the commissioning of the new vehicles in 2022, RMV will have the world’s largest fleet of fuel cell trains in passenger transport and it is the largest order in the history of our subsidiary fahma,” added RMV Managing Director Prof. Knut Ringat.
The new fuel cell trains will replace the existing diesel-powered trains on the following lines: RB11 (Frankfurt-Höchst – Bad Soden), RB12 (Frankfurt – Königstein), RB15 (Frankfurt – Bad Homburg – Brandoberndorf) and RB16 (Friedrichsdorf – Friedberg). The total order value amounts to around 500 million euros.
The world’s first two hydrogen trains have already been in regular passenger service in the Elbe-Weser network in Lower Saxony since September 2018. The Local Transport Authority of Lower Saxony (Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen, LNVG) will operate 14 Coradia iLint trains on that line from 2021. RMV is therefore the second operator to embrace environmentally-friendly hydrogen technology without exhaust gases, using the vehicles provided by fahma.