No hydrogen trains for Groningen as plans move slowly towards electrification
The Dutch hydrogen rolling stock project has ended after more than five years work.
Nearly two years after a tender process for hydrogen-powered trains was dropped (without a single bid), and more than five years after Alstom and the Province of Groningen agreed that hydrogen was a viable “full-fledged sustainable alternative to the current diesel trains,” the dream appears to be over.
Instead of hydrogen, the northern region of the Netherlands said it will instead use battery-electric locomotives to achieve its zero-emission railway aim.
The new plan is to follow its provincial neighbour Friesland, which earlier this year made €2.2m available to “explore partial electrification” of its railways. This would rely on battery-electric locomotives that can charge quickly when connected to catenary lines at stations. This is known as a discontinuous electrification.
“We will focus on (partial) electrification with (battery)electric trains. This is in line with the plans of the Province of Friesland. Next year, we will investigate which lines should be partially equipped with overhead lines and which lines should be fully equipped with overhead lines,” Wessel Feenstra, Groningen’s zero emission railways’ project leader, told Railway Technology.
Feenstra added that the Province is working with the Department for Infrastructure and Water Management and the railway infrastructure manager ProRail to plan which lines would be electrified and where cables would be placed.
The current commissioning period in Groningen and Friesland runs until 2035, and the question of how to power its railway network in the next period led to the decision to focus on battery-electric rolling stock.
