BERLIN, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- French manufacturer Alstom was attempting to set a new distance record with its CoradiaiLint hydrogen-powered train on Thursday. The train started from the state of Lower Saxony in the north of Germany and was heading towards Bavaria in the south.
The goal was to achieve a range of 1,000 kilometers on a single tank of hydrogen, according to Alstom. The new hydrogen trains are designed to cover approximately that distance.
"I am on the train and can confirm firsthand that the journey has gone very well so far," Joern Bischoff, external communications director Germany at Alstom, told Xinhua on Thursday. "We will reach the 1,000-kilometer mark shortly before Muehldorf in Bavaria."
"However, we will continue driving afterwards until we run out of hydrogen," Bischoff said. At the end of the journey, the train would be transferred to Berlin, where visitors would be able to take a tour as part of the InnoTrans trade fair.
At the end of August, the world's first passenger train network powered by hydrogen was launched in Lower Saxony, with the CoradiaiLint replacing diesel trains.
The total cost of the project was around 93 million euros (93 million U.S. dollars), according to the local transport authority of Lower Saxony.
"This project is a role model worldwide," Lower Saxony's Minister President Stephan Weil said. "As a state of renewable energies, we are thus setting a milestone on the path to climate neutrality in the transport sector." (1 euro = 1 U.S. dollar) ■
