By 2035 20% of regional trains in Europe will run on hydrogen, consulting company Roland Berger predicts in its annual study of trends and developments in the rail sector. Railway Supply magazine writes about this, citing RailTech.

hydrogen train
Picture: CAF

Hydrogen trains offer the biggest opportunity to make non-electrified routes more sustainable, according to Roland Berger global rail market research. Regarding main lines in Europe – about 60 per cent of the European rail network is electrified and 80 per cent of traffic is carried on these lines.

Today, diesel trains mostly run on non-electrified routes. Due to CO2 emissions and high fuel costs, “obsolete” and “polluting” diesel trains are increasingly losing favor with rail operators. In Germany, the country with the largest railway network in Europe, diesel trains are still widely used in the regions, although electrification is increasingly being carried out there.

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Replacing diesel trains with hydrogen ones will be expensive. In 2020, Germany has already presented a plan to become a world leader in hydrogen technology within ten years. This involves a huge investment of 7 billion euros. So far, the necessary hydrogen infrastructure has not yet been created, so it remains doubtful whether Germany will achieve its goal on time.

Although hydrogen, a chemical element, is more environmentally friendly than high-emission fossil fuels, it is not always environmentally friendly. Only green hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources is considered completely sustainable. 95 percent of the hydrogen currently used comes from fossil fuels, half of which is natural gas. So switching from diesel to hydrogen is certainly no more environmentally friendly than full electrification, but the latter is a costly and often time-consuming process, so for regional lines with low use, use of green hydrogen is a viable option to lower emissions.

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