You can ride through northern Lower Saxony quietly, comfortably and emission-free. Since last summer, hydrogen-powered trains have been operating the routes between Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde and Buxtehude. The trains are owned by the Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LNVG) and operated by Eisenbahnen und Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser GmbH (evb). The transport association is proud of the new technology: “We own the world’s first hydrogen train fleet,” says Thomas Nawrocki, Head of Vehicle Management at LNVG. By summer 2023, they plan to replace evb’s entire diesel fleet with a total of 14 hydrogen trains.
And that’s the ultimate goal: diesel trains have got to go. “Around 80 percent of local passenger transport is provided on electrified routes,” explains Nora Dörr, Project Manager for Alternative Drive Systems at VDE. However, thousands of diesel trains are still operating at the moment, and they’re far from climate-friendly. Getting them off the rails requires alternatives, though. It’s not always economical to electrify routes by adding overhead lines. The construction is disproportionately expensive, especially on routes with low passenger numbers. “Drives with overhead lines are the ideal choice in rail transport since they’re the most efficient. But wherever there are gaps in electrification, using hydrogen trains and battery vehicles is a suitable option,” says Rüdiger Wendt, a member of the VDI advisory board on railway technology.