The India hydrogen train launched July 17 on an 89 kilometer route
The India hydrogen train, the first hydrogen powered passenger train in the country, began running July 17 2026, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off a 10 coach train on an 89 kilometer route between Jind and Sonipat in Haryana. A hydrogen fuel cell makes electricity through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, with water as its only exhaust, instead of burning diesel the way a conventional locomotive does. The train runs 2 power cars, one at each end, each rated by its maker, Medha, at 1,200 kilowatts, split between a 480 kilowatt fuel cell and a 720 kilowatt battery, with 8 trailer coaches running between them. A newly built hydrogen production and refueling facility at Jind holds about 3,000 kilograms of hydrogen at once. The pilot cost around 12,000,000 dollars, more than a comparable conventional service, a senior railway official told Agence France Presse, adding that costs are expected to fall as the technology matures. Some key parts, including the fuel cells, were imported, even though the railway ministry called the train developed entirely in India.
This is a very significant day in the direction of self-reliant India and sustainable development.
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, in a social media post on launch day. Source 4.
Medha states a design range of 360 kilometers a day across 2 round trips for this locomotive, a figure not tied to any specific route by name. Two round trips over the 89 kilometer Jind to Sonipat route add up to 356 kilometers, within 4 kilometers of that design figure, a calculation made for this article from those 2 sourced numbers. That closeness is what confirms the specification Medha publishes is genuinely describing the locomotive class pulling this exact train, not simply a similar product.
The speed the India hydrogen train runs at falls short of what it is rated for
The train is rated for a top operational speed of 110 kilometers an hour, according to Medha. As of September 6 2026, almost 2 months after launch, Indian Railways had it running at only 75 kilometers an hour, even though trials at a faster 120 kilometers an hour are already complete.
The operational speed of the hydrogen train has so far been kept at 75 kmph. However, trials have been completed for a speed of 120 kmph.
Satish Kumar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Railway Board, speaking September 6 2026. Source 5.
Indian Railways is now working to bring the train up to its full 110 kilometers an hour, Kumar said, and has not yet decided which further routes will get a hydrogen train, still weighing where to source enough hydrogen fuel before it commits to more.
All 3 figures come from 1 statement made by Satish Kumar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Railway Board, on September 6 2026, describing 1 train, not 3 different trains. The rated target of 110 matches the figure Medha, the manufacturer, states separately in source 1.
Show the numbers
| Running today | 75 |
| Trials completed | 120 |
| Rated target | 110 |
How the route compares with a hydrogen train fleet already running in Germany
Germany put the first commercial hydrogen powered train into service in 2018, moved into regular service in summer 2022, and now runs 14 of them, the Coradia iLint, built by Alstom. That train is designed for routes up to 1,000 kilometers and has covered 1,175 kilometers on a single hydrogen fill, part of more than 200,000 kilometers run between 2018 and 2022. The Jind to Sonipat route the train in India runs today covers 89 kilometers, a small share of what a mature hydrogen train fleet already handles on 1 tank elsewhere.
The Jind to Sonipat figure is the actual distance this train covers each trip, source 4. The 2 German figures are a designed range and the longest single fueling run for the Coradia iLint, source 2, a design capability and a record from a country running hydrogen trains since 2018, not a distance the train in India has attempted.
Show the numbers
| Jind to Sonipat, route run today | 89 |
| Coradia iLint, designed range | 1,000 |
| Coradia iLint, longest single fueling recorded | 1,175 |
What still stands between 1 pilot route and a wider hydrogen train network
Indian Railways has not committed to further routes, and is still weighing where to source hydrogen fuel before it expands. The pilot cost more than a comparable conventional service to build, and its top speed still trails its own rating, almost 2 months after launch. Germany reached 14 hydrogen trains in regular service only after years of the same kind of gap. The train running between Jind and Sonipat shows hydrogen power can move a train, not yet that it can do so at its full rated speed, or at scale.