Hydrogen trains in Austria received approval for operation on passenger lines
Coradia iLint, the world's first hydrogen fuel cell train, by French manufacturer Alstom, has just completed a three-month successful test run on ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) regional lines.
Previously it received official approval from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology.
Austria is now the second country in Europe after Germany to approve hydrogen trains as a clean alternative to diesel locomotives.
Alstom is currently the world leader in offering tried and tested hydrogen trains ready for series production.
As a reminder, Germany launched the world's first Coradia iLint hydrogen trains in September 2018 in Lower Saxony.
Alstom has already sold about 50 hydrogen trains in Germany and Austria. Other countries such as the UK, the Netherlands, France and Italy are also interested in the new technology, according to the company.
Earlier today it was reported that Russia announced plans for the prospective production of hydrogen and its transportation to the EU countries.
In particular, Gazprom plans to build a large-scale plant for the production of low-carbon hydrogen from Russian natural gas at the landfall point of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines.
The company is also considering the possibility of supplying hydrogen via pipelines from Russia to Europe with the reverse of carbon dioxide back to Russia for its disposal or use.
Ukraine has already tested its pipeline system, which today transfers Russian gas to Europe, to replace it with hydrogen.