Network Rail, in collaboration with Freightliner and GeoPura, has transported hydrogen for the first time along Britain’s rail network.

The journey saw freight operator Freightliner carry a train of gas containers from Doncaster to High Marnham at Network Rail’s Test Tracks site in Tuxford.

The event marked the first delivery of hydrogen by rail in England

© Chris Milner

The test was carried out as part of a rail and energy industry innovation event highlighting a number of hydrogen initiatives, including the first re-engineered hydrogen-powered shunting locomotive, HPU hydrogen-powered generators, lighting towers and support vehicles.

The event was held in partnership with a wide range of organisations from both the rail and energy sectors, includingFreightliner, HyMarnham Power, GeoPura, Vanguard Sustainable Transport Solutions, Enspired Consulting, Rail Operations Group, Toyota UK and JCB.

Running all the way to High Manham; Network Rail’s site at Tuxford sits adjacent to HyMarnham Power, the largest green hydrogen production facility in the UK and one of the world’s first rail-connected hydrogen facilities.

Network Rail’s Tuxford Test Tracks site is set to be the world’s first net-zero railway testing facility.

With hydrogen typically transported by road, the event marks a major breakthrough in the journey towards Britain’s rail network becoming a ready-made hydrogen distribution system.

Leevan Finney, Network Rail’s engineering services director, said:

Rail is the greenest form of long-distance transport, and we, as an industry, are working hard to decarbonise transport and achieve net zero. For 200 years the railway has connected communities and major industry across Britain. Today, the railway has the potential to be a strategic hydrogen distribution network in the future, as it has been for energy for many years.

By bringing together rail and energy innovators here at Test Tracks in Tuxford, we’re accelerating Britain’s journey to net zero and showing how rail and energy sectors can work together to deliver sustainable transport and energy distribution.

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