this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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Swiss company Stadler Rail wins first European order for hydrogen trains (www.swissinfo.ch)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The train manufacturer signed an agreement on Thursday with two Italian railway operators to supply a total of 25 hydrogen-powered trains.

Stadler Rail secured contracts with Azienda regionale sarda trasporti (Arst) and Ferrovie della Calabria (FdC) for the development, production, delivery and maintenance of 10 and 15 hydrogen-powered FLIRT H2 trains respectively.

Although the value of the order has not been disclosed, the Swiss-based company shared that the two projects are being financed under the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). These funds are available to EU member states to prepare and invest in green and digital transitions.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The thing is, in this kind of setting cheap always wins over sustainable. So if we need lots of Hydrogen and burning fossiles is the way to get it cheaply, we'll burn more fossiles

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sure, if it is the cheapest, people will go that route and there will always be people that do things like this, you can't stop that. But as always, there will come restrictions and regulations - like in europe with fossil fuel cars.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess that's all to say, I wish they used the environmental money to electrify the line instead since that is a proven alternative. This way it seems a bit like greenwashing to me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Fair enough. Maybe they look to innovate train transportation even further. For example i know that in certain places, they still use coal trains, because they haven't rebuild the line to have electricity. This could give a boost to switch some old coal trains to hydrogen. Without the power lines, your much faster and more flexible in building train lines.