The Center-Val-de-Loire region wants to test the hydrogen train designed in Germany by the railway manufacturer Alstom at the start of the school year between Tours and Loches (Indre-et-Loire).
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“Discussions and feasibility studies are underway to respond to the Center-Val-de-Loire Region’s plan to test an Alstom iLint train on the Tours-Loches line”, a spokesperson for the railway manufacturer told AFP on Tuesday. “It will clearly be a test circulation, not a commercial circulation”, the German train is not approved in France, said an official in the Center-Pays-de-la-Loire region. The Tours-Loches line is one of the “Small lines” which the region must take over entirely.
First successful tests
This iLint hydrogen regional train was successfully tested in Germany between 2018 and 2020, then last year in the Netherlands and Austria. Alstom has already received firm orders for 41 units in Germany, which are to enter commercial service from 2022. The group has also sold 6 trainsets to an Italian company, adapting a model produced in the country.
Four French regions – of which the Center-Val-de-Loire is not part – are simultaneously engaged with Alstom and SNCF in the development of a French model of hydrogen train to replace part of their old diesel trains on non-electrified lines. But discussions with Alstom and SNCF are behind schedule and the first prototypes of this dual-mode hydrogen-electric model should not circulate before 2023. In all cases, the hydrogen power train is supplied by the Alstom plant in Tarbes .
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