Trains powered by hydrogen were actually supposed to start running in the Schwarza Valley in the Saalfeld-Rudolstad district in 2023.
The Thuringian Ministry of Infrastructure has now put a corresponding pilot project on hold. The reason: at 90 million euros, operation is expected to cost almost twice as much as estimated. But the project is not completely dead yet.
The Thuringian Ministry of Infrastructure has halted an award procedure for the operation of hydrogen trains in the Schwarza Valley in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district. According to a spokesman, the costs estimated for operating the hydrogen trains are too high. The sole applicant, the Thüringer Bergbahn company, has meanwhile calculated costs of 90 million euros, he said.
The ministry had originally calculated 55 million euros. A cost surcharge had already been included, the spokesman said. The pilot project for the operation of hydrogen trains in the Schwarza Valley is important. But the costs now estimated are simply too high. In addition, he said, delivery times for hydrogen trains have been delayed more and more. The reason for this is the high demand for the technology from the two suppliers Alstom and Siemens.
According to the ministry, however, the project is not yet completely canceled. In the next two years, the state wants to examine how the operation of hydrogen trains can be implemented in the Schwarza Valley. For this purpose, an external expert office has been commissioned. The results are expected in the middle of next year. After that, it will be decided whether the pilot project for hydrogen trains will remain in Thuringia. The state also hopes that passenger numbers in local and rail public transport will stabilize again by then. In addition, the state is speculating that further subsidies can be applied for from the federal government.
According to managing director Diana Saager, the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary Thüringer Bergbahn, which operates the Oberweißbach mountain railroad, received the tender documents in March and then submitted a bid to the state. In addition to the vehicle procurement, the filling station and maintenance had also been calculated for the new technology.
The original plan was for hydrogen trains to run on the 25-kilometer route between Rottenbach and Katzhütte starting in 2023. In addition, buses in the Schwarza Valley are also to be powered by hydrogen in the future. At the end of last year, the Erfurt University of Applied Sciences and the Thuringian Ministry of the Environment presented the concept for this. The buses should also be better timed with the trains – so that more people use the environmentally friendly technology.
