Planning for a Greener Future

The article about hydrail, the future and Thunder Bay is spot-on. That includes the remaining potential. If I recall correctly, Bombardier has had two golden hydrail opportunities. The first was when Premier Dalton McGuinty had his prescient view of Thunder Bay as the manufacturing birthplace of hydrogen trains. The second was when the International Association of Railways (UIC in French) was seeking a proof-of-concept manufacturer during their HyRail initiative over a decade ago. Today, Siemens has their hydrail Mireo; Alstom’s Coradia iLint is wowing the world; China Railway Rolling-stock is producing hydrail trams in Qingdao and Tangshan; Swiss Stadler is tooling-up for a narrow-gauge in Austria’s Zillertal valley; the UK is preparing its Porterbrook–BCRRE Breeze, an Alstom catenary-to-hydrail conversion plant and a Vivarail project; Japan (the earliest hydrail developer) has rebooted their JR East hydrail plans; and South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem is gearing up for hydrail.

After a long snooze during the Obama years, the USA is waking up and smelling the hydrogen:

North Carolina and San Bernardino, California, are poised to put the first hydrail wheels on rails.

In North America, Bombardier may have slept through the opening ceremonies but the game has hardly begun. In the US alone there are 330,000 miles of rail that must either go hydrail or stay with extracted carbon. Canada must have a comparable network.

Cities around Canada with air quality concerns and/or climate commitment will soon be purchasing hydrail locomotives that were built decades ago as diesels. Thunder Bay could be Canada’s conversion center.

In the hydrail transition, not one trainset or locomotive design is new…or needs to be. The conversion is so straightforward that only modest modifications of existing designs plus catenary or diesel retrofits have been undertaken to launch the hydrail transition.

Cummins’ recent purchase of Hydrogenics means two big things: the US is acknowledging the geopolitical market realities of climate protection—if not yet the science—and a global tipping point has been crossed, in that the world of chemical “extraction traction” has acquiesced to the new dawn of technogenic energy—nuclear electric and drawing from ambient energy sources that never run out, the renewables. It’s Earth’s brawn-to-brain transition.

When/if Ontario brings the world heavy hydrail for Metrolinx, a profound mile marker will have been passed. Feeder line hydrail freight will emerge quickly and, given the surprising speed at which open ocean marine hydrogen power is developing, even Class 1 freight and high speed hydrail will quietly enter strategic consideration.

Next June, Canada will host Mooresville’s and Appalachian State University’s 15th annual International Hydrail Conference. The University of BC in Okanagan and the Penticton Band of First Peoples are our hosts.

Thunder Bay and Bombardier may have dawdled and arrived at the hydrail party too late for cocktails and appetizers. But no worries; the main course is still in the kitchen and there’s plenty to go around. But please come in now; don’t settle for dessert.

Bon appétit!

Stan Thompson

The Mooresville Hydrail Initiative