2023-06-17 15:10:07
The first hydrogen-powered passenger train in North America officially headed for Charlevoix on Saturday morning. This zero-emission train, which emits only water vapor, will connect Quebec City to Baie-Saint-Paul until September.
“We are very proud. It’s a vision of innovation, but it’s also the future,” said the General Manager of the Charlevoix Network, Nancy Belley, a few minutes before the maiden voyage.
The 120-person train from French manufacturer Alstom, which will also manufacture the Quebec tramway, will replace one of the three diesel trains as part of a pilot project valued, overall, at nearly $8 million and funded to the tune of $3 million by the Quebec government. The latter will however be returned to Germany at the end of the summer season.
Refueling with green hydrogen for the Coradia iLint will be provided by the company Harnois Energies, which manufactures this type of fuel in Quebec City, by electrolysis of water, with electricity.
“It’s historic what we are going through today. It’s not just a short train ride, it’s a journey into the future, ”underlines the deputy for Montmorency, Jean-François Simard.
“It is the bearer of an extraordinary social project and it is a fantastic legacy that we can leave to our children,” he added.
Nicolas St-Pierre
A showcase for Alstom
For the French manufacturer, the project also proves to be a showcase for eventually being able to deploy permanent zero-emission trains in Quebec.
As this technology can be used on existing rails, the costs would also be lower than completely electrifying the network.
“What we want to demonstrate is a zero-emission rail transport ecosystem. This is a first in North America and it bodes well for the future”, mentioned the director of Alstom’s Americas Innovation Center, Éric Rondeau.
Nicolas St-Pierre
A completely electric network
While many countries such as China and India are moving more and more towards the development of a 100% electric rail network, Éric Rondeau believes that it would be rather utopian to consider this kind of vision on the scale Quebec due to population density.
“In an ideal world, we might electrify the railway industry everywhere. The reality is that in the regions, the density of the population does not allow it. The compromise is a train like that, which can operate on non-electrified lines,” he explains.
Hydrogen trains might also possibly be permanently installed on the rails linking Quebec City to Charlevoix in the future.
We’ll have to see how it goes this summer, but for sure the next trains we’d like to include in our fleets would be hydrogen trains because, as I said earlier, it’s is the future”, raises Nancy Belley.
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