Germany: The authorities of the Hochtaunus district in the state of Hesse are highly critical of both the rolling stock and the technology, stressing that the faults have not been rectified for almost a year. The chairman of the supervisory board of the customer, the regional transport association Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV), has indicated that the maintenance contract will be terminated if the problem is not resolved.
As reported by the Frankfurter Neue Presse, most of the 27 Coradia iLint two-car trains delivered to the region are now out of service due to technical problems. According to RMV, a reduced timetable will be in place until at least mid-December, with the trains being temporarily replaced by buses.
Ulrich Krebs, head of the Hochtaunus district and chairman of the RMV supervisory board, told German media that the Coradia iLint’s hydrogen technology was “obviously fundamentally unreliable”.
The Coradia iLint is the world’s first hydrogen-powered MU. It took several years to trial the two-car train in Germany. In 2019, RMV ordered 27 vehicles from Alstom for use on four non-electrified lines in the Taunus mountain region. The contract was worth €500 mln, including maintenance for 25 years.
The Coradia iLint went into passenger service last December, a year later than originally planned. Immediately afterwards, reliability proved to be poor and the refuelling station was not working well.
Alstom blames the problems on bottlenecks in the supply of spare parts from North America and “limited functionality of separate hydrogen fuel cells” from Cummins, and promises to make every effort to get the trains back into service in the short term. To this end, the company plans to increase the number of staff at the depot, update some components and software, and upgrade the fuel cells of the entire fleet over the next year.
RMV officially states that it is not considering imposing fines on the manufacturer because Alstom is already incurring additional costs due to the low technical readiness of the rolling stock. For example, it is compensating for the replacement of trains with buses and has increased expenditure on repairs.
Speaking on behalf of the mayors of all the towns in the Hochtaunus district, Ulrich Krebs admits that the contract with Alstom to maintain the trains could be terminated if the problems persist. However, RMV’s press office told the Frankfurter Neue Presse that the contract would continue to be honoured.
Germany’s first commercial line served by hydrogen Coradia iLints is also experiencing problems. In September, the operator, EVB, had to temporarily replace them with diesel trains due to a disruption in the hydrogen supply from Linde. The Lower Saxony railway operator LNVG, which ordered the trains, cancelled further purchases due to high operating costs and opted for battery and electric traction instead.
