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France will start operating its first hydrogen-powered trains in 2024, according to press reports today quoting the transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.

He announced the placing of an order with manufacturer Alstom for three trains. They will be used on the Auxerre-Laroche-Migennes line in Burgundy, replacing diesels.

They will be bi-mode trains: electric or hydrogen. The project also involves constructing a plant in Auxerre to generate the hydrogen required, the reports said.

It appears the order is from the region (Bourgogne Franche Comté’), and relates to their self-declared status as "major French hydrogen territory (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjI2bbwzpnvAhUailwKHcjJCDgQFjABegQIBhAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Faer-bfc.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F04%2Fhydrogen-in-bourgogne-franche-comte-en.pdf&usg=AOvVaw33RuD5yaCazRdOvJVpimTY)". And the trains will be the iLint ones first trialled in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and other places, or a new version of the same. That's appeared on the forum before (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=19251.msg247156#msg247156), where I noted from the German launch: "One of the odder comments from Alstom was that their first hydrogen trains in France would be tram-trains, to make it easier to get approval for them. " Oh well, stuff happens.

Meanwhile, over in Germany, Siemens announced last November (https://press.siemens.com/global/en/feature/deutsche-bahn-and-siemens-enter-hydrogen-age) that: "Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Siemens Mobility are driving forward the climate-friendly transition in transport and are testing the use of hydrogen for rail for the first time". Now, you probably thought that was claiming this was the first such train anywhere - I did. And we all (and Alstom in particular) know that's not true. So I guess that, on the advice of the best Wiesel in the weaselling business, they are only saying it's the first time that DB and Siemens are doing it.

So, there's a lot of little bits of it about.