Germany technology giant Siemens has won a 1.6bn-lei ($373m) contract to supply 12 hydrogen-powered trains to Romania after three previous auctions failed to attract any bids.

Under the 30-year contract — offered for the fourth time in December 2024 by Romania’s government-owned Rail Reform Authority (ARF) — Siemens’ subsidiary Siemens Mobility will also supply maintenance and repair services.

It is not clear why the three previous tenders failed to attract any bids, despite the ARF offering a a maximum of 2.48bn lei for a 15-year contract and 4.2bn lei for a 30-year contract under the third tender — both far greater sums than Siemens eventually secured.

Funding for the contract had been originally earmarked from the Romanian government’s post-Covid National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), but this has now been withdrawn and the ARF “is taking the necessary steps to secure a new source of funding, in order to implement the project”.

The ARF did not say why the funding was withdrawn, though details of Romanian government documentation repeatedly state projects receiving funding under the PNRR have a completion deadline of 2026, so it is possible this project no longer fits within that timeline.

The associated hydrogen supply for the trains had been included in earlier tenders, but it is unclear if this is still the case. It is also not clear why the Romanian government did not abandon its plans to tender the H2 trains after three failed attempts.

The 12 trains will run on non-electrified lines between Romania’s capital Bucharest and the city’s Henri Coandă Airport, as well as between Bucharest and Pitești, Târgoviște, Curtea de Argeș, Craiova and Piatra Olt.

Few hydrogen train projects have been signed off around the world in recent years, largely due to the expense and the fact that existing H2-powered rail projects have experienced major difficulties.

In the German region of Frankfurt, a €500m ($588m) project to deploy a fleet of 27 hydrogen trains has run into numerous delays since it launched in 2019, with the full complement of fuel-cell locomotives now set to enter service this year — three years later than planned.

Train manufacturer Alstom had originally been contracted to deliver the 27 trains by the end of 2022, but only six were delivered on time and proved to be defective, requiring retrofitting of new hardware and software components. Problems continued, and almost two years later, most of the trains were back in the depot due to fuel-cell problems, leading to the head of the public body responsible for public transport planning to state: “There has never been such a failure in the performance and reliability of a regional train line.”

In November last year, the French government pulled previously agreed €350m in state-aid funding for Alstom, that had been allocated under the EU’s Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) scheme in 2022.

Source:HydrogenInsight