Over the last months several announcements on the deployment of rails point to the need to think again on how and where large scale hydrogen production and distribution could best be located  :

On January 7, 2019 Alstom and leasing company Eversholt Rail have unveiled their ‘Breeze’ proposal to convert surplus Class 321 electric multiple-units to hydrogen power. The 25 kV 50 Hz Class 321 EMUs which will be retiring  the end of this year.  Greater Anglia is replacing them with new vehicles from Bombardier Transportation and Stadler. Alstom said the ‘proven and reliable’ EMUs were ‘an excellent fit in terms of characteristics, fleet size and availability for conversion to a hydrogen multiple-unit’. Alstom and Eversholt are now working with stakeholders to develop business cases and detailed plans for the introduction of hydrogen-powered units and the associated fuelling infrastructure that  could enter in service from 2022. Alstom UK & Ireland Managing Director Nick Crossfield sais that “The railways need to decarbonise and the government has rightly set out a goal to eliminate diesel rolling stock by 2040. Hydrogen trains offer an ideal solution for routes which are unlikely to benefit from electrification, and our innovative engineering solution means they can now fit within the UK loading gauge and can quickly be ready to roll on Britain’s railways.’

Rail Minister Andrew Jones said hydrogen trains were ‘an exciting innovation which has the potential to transform our railway, making journeys cleaner and greener by cutting CO₂ emissions even further’, and the government was ‘working with industry to establish how hydrogen trains can play an important part in the future, delivering better services on rural and inter-urban routes.’ Alstom says the conversions will take place in batches of up to 15 trains at a time at the company’s facility at Widnes, near Liverpool, and the first could be ready by 2021. Eventually 100 class 321s could be converted.The trains could initially be used in the northeast, possibly on the Tees Valley Line between Bishop Auckland and Middlesbrough, and in the northwest between Liverpool and Widnes. According to Alstom, the trains will have a range of 1000km and a maximum speed of 140km/h. “We think the potential long-term application of hydrogen in Britain is very significant,” says Alstom UK & Ireland managing director, Mr Nick Crossfield. “Less than 50% of the UK network is electrified, and much that isn’t electrified is unlikely ever to be so. Starting with this conversion, we think hydrogen could offer the right zero carbon solution for many parts of the network.”