Railways to use hydrogen trains on heritage routes

The Indian Railways (IR), after a long feasibility study, has started working on its ‘Hydrogen for Heritage’ scheme, under which it would use hydrogen to fuel tourist trains across heritage hill tracks.

To achieve this first-of-its-kind eco-friendly move, the Railways has planned to acquire and operate hydrogen trains on railway routes across environmentally sensitive hilly terrains with potential for tourism.

The Standing Committee on Railways (2022-23) of the 17th Lok Sabha, in its report, has mentioned that the railways have proposed to run 35 hydrogen trains at an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore per train and ground infrastructure of Rs 70 crore per route.

The report further states, “As a pilot project for retro fitment of hydrogen fuel cell on existing diesel electrical multiple units (DEMU), rake with ground infrastructure has been planned to fund on Jind-Sonipat section of the northern railway at a cost of Rs 111.83 crore. In this regard, the committee had felt that once the same is operational, it would go a long way and in the right direction towards green energy.”

Appreciating the initiative, the committee said that the railways also have to make suitable preparedness and act vigorously to fulfil the concept. Quoting details, the committee report has stated that the Indian Railways has taken the lead by awarding a contract to convert a 1,200 KW DEMU with a hydrogen fuel cell-based distributed power rolling stick.

“The field trials of the first prototype are slated to commence from June 2024 and the Indian Railways envisages manufacturing of train sets with fuel cell-based propulsion system to provide traction energy from hydrogen fuel cell,” reads the report submitted in the Lok Sabha recently.

The 35 train-set rakes, each having six cars, have been sanctioned in Rolling Stock Programme 2023-24 for eight heritage routes. The sleeted heritage rail routes on which the hydrogen-fuelled trains will run are — the Matheran Hill Railway, Darjeeling Himalaya Railway, Kalka Shimla Railway, the Kangra Valley, the Bilmora Waghai, the Patapalpani Kalakund, Nilgiri Mountain railways and Marwar-Goram ghat railway.

35 trains with 6 cars each will run on 8 heritage routes: