The Mooresville Hydrail Initiative, begun in August, 2003, as an invited proposal to the US DOT’s Volpe “think tank”, reached its primary goal this morning (17 September 2018) as the first ticketed passengers rode Alstom’s ghostly quiet Coradia iLint trains through Lower Saxony—the world’s first regular intercity hydrail passenger traffic! Stan Thompson (pictured above), the • Read More »
Search Results for: hydrail
North Carolina pioneering hydrail in USA
September 4, 2018 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on North Carolina pioneering hydrail in USA | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Vehicles, Infrastructure, News.a first step toward bringing hydrail back home by guest blogger, Stan Thompson North Carolina operates its own passenger railway service. The State Department of Transportation has begun plans to modify the locomotives on its line from the State Capital (Raleigh) to the State’s biggest city, (Charlotte) to be powered electrically by hydrogen via fuel • Read More »
A Triumph In Rome: 13th International Hydrail Conference
June 17, 2018 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on A Triumph In Rome: 13th International Hydrail Conference | Filed in: Conferences, Hydrail, Infrastructure, News.by guest blogger Stan Thompson The University of Rome II at Tor Vergata hosted the Thirteenth International Hydrail Conference the week of June 4, 2018, and it was a delightful success! Professor Stefano Cordiner and his colleagues saw that the Conference ran like a well-oiled clock (Tutto era semplicemente perfetto! Grazie!). The IHC’s have come • Read More »
Will hydrail connect North and South Korea?
May 13, 2018 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Will hydrail connect North and South Korea? | Filed in: History, Hydrail, Infrastructure, News, Political Issues.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Last Thursday (10 May 2018), Choe San-Hun wrote in the New York Times that, during their recent historic encounter, South Korean President Moon Jae-in handed North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un a “USB drive” containing an infrastructure vision including railway modernization. Mr. Choe does not mention hydrogen fuel cell railways but, • Read More »
First presentation ride aboard Alstom’s German hydrail train
April 15, 2018 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on First presentation ride aboard Alstom’s German hydrail train | Filed in: Fuel Cells, History, Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Infrastructure, News.by guest blogger Stan Thompson A major milestone in railway history was passed on April 13, 2018, when Alstom Transport’s Coradia iLint hydrail [hydrogen fuel cell rail] train made a “presentation ride” from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt, in the federal state of Hesse, Germany. From my point of view it was a bittersweet occasion for two • Read More »
Hydrail Transition: The Catenary versus the Hindenburg
February 12, 2018 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail Transition: The Catenary versus the Hindenburg | Filed in: Advocates, Hydrail, Hydrogen Safety, Infrastructure, Myths.by Guest Blogger Stan Thompson A headline in the January 2018 online issue of Britain’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers publication is the latest hydrail transition landmark: Transport Secretary calls for hydrogen trains Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said the introduction of hydrogen-powered trains is “a priority” for Britain’s railways. The article by Amit Katwala goes • Read More »
Hydrail provenance: Thanks, James Neal !
June 21, 2017 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail provenance: Thanks, James Neal ! | Filed in: Conferences, Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Infrastructure.by guest blogger, Stan Thompson The Twelfth International Hydrail Conference next week (27-28 June 2017) in Graz, Austria, will be very different from the first of its kind in Charlotte NC, back in 2005. To begin with, our secondary objective now is to integrate the efforts of companies like Alstom Transport and China Railway Rolling-stock • Read More »
12th International Hydrail Conference: 27-28 June, 2017
May 17, 2017 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on 12th International Hydrail Conference: 27-28 June, 2017 | Filed in: Conferences, Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Economy, Hyrail, Infrastructure, News.Graz, Austria — 27-28 June, 2017 by guest blogger, Stan Thompson It’s been a dozen years since former Mooresville, NC, USA, Mayor Bill Thunberg, Appalachian State University Research Anaylst, Jason W. Hoyle and I first undertook to midwife hydrogen fuel cell based railway traction into being. Our goal was mostly environmental but we also had a • Read More »
Hydrail: A Pullet Surprise
April 13, 2017 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail: A Pullet Surprise | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Hydrogen Vehicles, Infrastructure, News.by guest blogger Stan Thompson If anyone out there is a friend of CNN’s Nadine Schmidt, please do five things: Buy Nadine a really nice steak dinner! Thank her for her excellent segment on hydrail April 12 (http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/12/technology/germany-hydrogen-powered-train/). Give her my eternal thanks for exhuming perhaps the deepest—and most regrettably—buried environmental story of the 21st century. Tell her about • Read More »
Hydrail at Davos: the “Hydrogen Council” on-track
January 23, 2017 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail at Davos: the “Hydrogen Council” on-track | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Aircraft, Hydrogen Economy, Infrastructure, Myths.by guest blogger, Stan Thompson Media covering the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week missed one of the biggest stories there. The new Hydrogen Council announced at the Forum included Alstom Transport, the Paris-based train builder that’s sold 40-50 hydrail trains to four German states. Last year the German Federal Ministry of Transport published an • Read More »