Alstom to roll with the hydrogen train in Spain in less than three years.
The hydrogen revolution as fuel for the railway sector has put rolling stock manufacturer Alstom on the offensive in Spain. The company chaired in this country by Leopoldo Maestu has offered to the Government, within the framework of the call for projects to be financed with the recovery funds, to start the hydrogen train in the commercial phase in a period of 24 to 30 months. . In fact, it could start working in tests in no more than six months.
Maestu has stressed, in a telematic meeting with the media, that his company is the only one with technology in this field in the commercial phase, in addition to having fifty orders underway. “Hydrogen is an interesting niche for the railway sector and for companies like ours. It is not about competing with the efficiency of electricity, but it is necessary to consider whether it is worthwhile to electrify lines in rural areas or to have hydrogen trains ”, said the executive.
Alstom to roll with the hydrogen train in Spain in less than three years
The president of Alstom has received with optimism the recent turn of Renfe towards the contracting of trains with hydrogen traction instead of buying diesel locomotives. The public company has decided to stop and re-bid two tenders for a total of 1,300 million euros.
Alstom already has a model operating in Germany and Austria, the Coradia iLint , and believes that it could be homologated in Spain with little touch-up. In fact, the company appreciates an opportunity in the rain of European funds for the introduction of hydrogen in the railway system of this country.
Regarding other activities, the manufacturer this morning encouraged an improvement in safety in corridors with low traffic density with the replacement of the ASFA system by ERTMS . And a third development lever can be seen in the automation processes of large suburban cities such as Madrid and Barcelona.
Alstom, which is making progress in the Bombardier integration process , will have four industrial centers in Spain, as many innovation centers, two joint ventures with Renfe and 27 work centers. The latest project is the commitment to a new industrial facility in Getafe (Madrid) for the assembly and maintenance of bogies. The investment will move between 5 and 6 million euros for a 3,000 square meter plant that will start this year with about 50 workers. In parallel, an equipment repair facility will also come into operation in Pinto (Madrid).
More capacity in Santa Perpetua
Alstom’s star asset in this country, the Santa Perpetua plant in Barcelona , has two years of development ahead of it to double its capacity. In a period of five years, which began in 2019, the company will have invested 150 million in the Catalan factory, in which new test tracks, areas and painting and tooling machinery will be incorporated. From this plant, the contract recently awarded by Renfe for the supply of high-capacity trains will be handled.
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Maestu and his team are already working on incorporating the offer of Bombardier traction systems, produced in the Biscayan factory of Trápaga , to their proposals in tenders such as the one for rolling stock in Metro de Madrid that should be published in the coming months.
With around 700 million in annual revenue and a workforce of 3,000 employees, the union of Alstom and Bombardier in Spain manages to increase its activity related to the national market from 15% to 40%, owing 60% of the workload to export. This greater balance is due to the reactivation of train orders in the local market.
One of Alstom’s iLint hydrogen trains running in Austria.
Alstom’s Coradia iLint is the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell train. After filming in the commercial phase in Germany, last December it completed three months of tests in commercial operation with passengers on the Austrian regional lines of ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways). The test was carried out in southern Lower Austria, Vienna and eastern Styria.
In the latter country you have the green light from the Federal Ministry of Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology to roll.
Alstom’s commitment to hydrogen dates back more than five years. The iLint model was presented in September 2016 at the InnoTrans fair . A year later, the French manufacturer signed a contract with the Lower Saxony Local Transport Authority (LNVG) for the supply of 14 Coradia iLint units intended to replace diesel trains 2022.
Previously, in the spring of 2017, the model underwent its first functional tests, on the test track of the Alstom factory in Salzgitter (Germany) at 80 kilometers per hour, and on the test track of Velim (Czech Republic). ) at 140 kilometers per hour. After that, approval for passenger transport on the German public network came in July 2018.
Between February September of that year and February 2020 the iLint covered 180,000 kilometers in the testing phase on the German Weser-Elbe line .
With the commercial machinery already fully operational, Alstom fulfills the order from Fhama, a RMV subsidiary, for 27 hydrogen trains for four regional lines in the Taunus area, bringing the order book closer to 50 units.
Alstom se ofrece para rodar con el tren de hidrógeno en España en menos de tres años, 6 May 2021
