India’s first hydrogen-powered train ran between New Delhi and Jind on Friday in a new series of trials, with engineers tracking emergency braking distances and vibrations as the project nears commercial service.
The train reached a top speed of 120 km/h on the Jind-Sonipat section during testing, but its operating speed will be set at 75 km/h. The previous round of trials between Sonipat and Jind has been completed.
The Railway Board, in a letter dated May 22, approved the introduction of 10-coach train sets. Five days later, on May 27, the Ministry of Railways announced the approval but has not yet announced a date for starting passenger services.
Here’s what we know so far about the project and how the technology works:
project
The train set is a modified diesel-electric multiple unit (DEMU) – a type of rake train already common on India’s short- and medium-distance routes – that has been modified to run on hydrogen fuel cells instead of diesel.
The retrofit was contracted by Hyderabad-based railway electronics manufacturer Medha Servo Drives, which is developing fuel cell technology in partnership with Canada’s Ballard Power Systems.
The train will be equipped with two 1,200 kW driving power carriages (DPC), and the remaining eight carriages will be passenger cars. On this basis, the railway company said it will be the longest and most powerful (2,400 kW) hydrogen-powered trainset on a broad gauge line in the world.
Railways intend to electrify much of their network, so hydrogen trains are mainly planned for routes that are difficult to electrify or involve traditional routes. Currently, the Hydrogen Heritage plan envisages only 35 such train routes.
GreenH Electrolysis, a joint venture between Spain’s H2B2 Electrolysis Technologies and GR Promotioner Group, said the hydrogenation will be handled by a plant in Jind whose 1-MW polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyser can produce about 420-430 kilograms of hydrogen per day. GreenH Electrothesis, a joint venture between Spain’s H2B2 Electrolysis Technologies and GR Promotioner Group, built the facility under a 2023 contract with Medha.
The site has 3,000 kilograms of storage capacity and two tankers to speed up refueling.
A train can travel about 250 kilometers on one fuel cycle.
Currently, the cost is estimated to be $Rs 80 crore per train $Apart from other developments, Rs 700 million has been spent on route infrastructure. in writing People’s House Reply In December 2025, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that a fair cost comparison with conventional traction systems was not yet possible as the project and its infrastructure were still in the pilot development stage.
Also read: India’s next great electrification
why this is important
Mainly because it’s clean technology. Hydrogen fuel cells produce electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen, with the only by-product being water vapor, so the trains have no carbon emissions when in use.
The project makes India one of the few countries, along with Germany, Japan, China and the United States, that has built or is building hydrogen-powered passenger trains. Germany’s Alstom Coradia iLint was put into commercial operation in 2018, making it the first in the world.
For Indian Railways, which is set to become a net-zero carbon emitter, electrification is a priority and hydrogen is seen as the answer to bridge the remaining gap. These include non-electrified sections, difficult terrain and heritage lines such as those in the Nilgiris, Darjeeling and Kangra Valley.
Also read: Pune celebrates 96th inauguration anniversary of iconic Deccan Queen
How hydrogen trains work
In fact, hydrogen fuel cells work on the opposite principle of electrolysis. Electrolysis uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, while fuel cells combine hydrogen stored on board with oxygen drawn from the air to produce electricity and release water vapor and heat as the only by-products.
This electricity then drives the train’s traction motor, just like an electric locomotive’s motor is driven by current from overhead wires, except that the hydrogen train makes its own power source instead of using it.
The location of hydrogen tanks and fuel cells on board ships varies by design. A peer-reviewed article published in ScienceDirect in 2024 said that Germany’s Coradia iLint installed its fuel cells and storage tanks on the roofs of two cars, reasoning that hydrogen is much lighter than air and would quickly spread upward if leaked, thereby reducing the risk of explosions.
Switzerland’s Stadler has dedicated an entire carriage on its FLIRT H2 trainset to storage and fuel cells, completely isolating the equipment from the passenger cars.
Batteries are a standard part of the packaging in almost all designs, including those in India. ScienceDirect comments that they store the remaining power generated by the fuel cell and the energy recovered through regenerative braking, providing additional power during acceleration when the fuel cell cannot keep up.
Also read: Indian Railways to upgrade 100 Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi trains
limitation
Hydrogen rails are not a new technology that has been rushed into service. Alstom has been commercially operating hydrogen trains in Germany since 2018, and Stadler’s FLIRT H2 set a Guinness World Record by running 2,803 kilometers for more than 46 hours without refueling.
Green hydrogen produced by splitting water using renewable electricity is the only version of the fuel that qualifies for true decarbonization. Most hydrogen produced today is “gray”, that is, from natural gas or other traditional fuels. Producing green hydrogen at scale remains expensive, largely due to the cost of electrolysers and renewable energy sources.
Another issue is storage and compression. Hydrogen has a very low volumetric energy density and must be compressed to high pressure (typically 350-700 bar) for onboard storage. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Program records, compression itself consumes approximately 6-10% of the gas’s own energy.
According to reviews in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy and PubMed Central (PMC), the small molecular size of hydrogen can also penetrate metals, a phenomenon known as hydrogen embrittlement that can weaken the performance of gas cylinders with repeated use and is a recognized safety issue in industries that handle compressed hydrogen.
Both reviews stated that corrosion of metal storage and refueling components from long-term hydrogen exposure is a relevant, long-documented problem. That’s why new pressure vessel designs are increasingly turning to composite materials rather than just metal.
The third concern is operational pressure. India’s extreme climate and harsh duty cycles may test the resiliency of fuel cells in ways that have not yet been fully proven outside of more temperate operating environments such as Germany.
The cost-effectiveness and scalability of hydrogen-powered trains appears to be a long-standing issue. Although the technology has been around for years, it has yet to catch up with public transportation powered by traditional fuels or renewable energy.
