The map of the lines
A specific technical table was set up with the Conte 2 government at the Ministry of Development for the implementation of experimental hydrogen sections, a topic dear to the 5 Star Movement. Subsequently, the table on hydrogen experimentation in the railway sector, set up at the directorate-general of MIMS (Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility), compiled the list of railway sections potentially susceptible to conversion from diesel to hydrogen in various regions.
The list was released by the chairman of the Senate Public Works Commission, Mauro Coltorti (M5S). Here it is: Calabria: Reggio Calabria-Catanzaro line; Sardinia: potentially all lines; Sicily: Syracuse-Modica, Modica-Gela, Gela-Canicattì, Lentini-Gela lines; Tuscany / Emilia: Faentina line (Florence-Faenza) and Lucca-Aulla; Umbria / Lazio / Abruzzo: Terni-Rieti – Sulmona line. To these are added the Lecce-Gallipoli-Leuca area for interventions concerning bus lines and railway lines managed by Ferrovie del Sud Est (Fs Group) and Lombardy, where Ferrovie Nord Milano (Fnm) is committed to creating a real hydrogen valley in Valcamonica.
In Valcamonica the most advanced project
The latter is, at the moment, the Italian project in the most advanced stage: Fnm has already ordered 6 hydrogen trains from Alstom, with the option for an additional 8 and the first delivery scheduled for December 2023. The train is entirely designed and built in the Italian factories. by Alstom.
Andrea Gibelli, president of Fnm explains: «The Fnm project does not intend to simply replace diesel oil with hydrogen, but to push the entire community towards the energy transition. If we want to remain in the squad of leading countries in Europe active on hydrogen, however, we need a framework law on hydrogen, simplifications and a streamlined regulation of train production, as in Germany and France “.
Germany, in particular, is ahead in the experimentation of hydrogen trains, with Alstom trains specially manufactured for the German market already in circulation on some regional lines and with Lower Saxony completing the construction of the first station in the world for the refueling of passenger trains with hydrogen.