Hydrogen trains in Berlin, Germany have replaced diesel since 2024
Hydrogen trains have been carrying passengers in Berlin, Germany since December 15, 2024, when 7 hydrogen fuel cell trains built by Siemens Mobility entered scheduled service on the Heidekrautbahn, a regional line north of the city with no overhead electric wires. Each 2 car train carries 2 fuel cell engines, made by Ballard Power Systems, that turn hydrogen gas into electricity to power the train instead of burning diesel. The switch displaces about 1.1 million litres of diesel a year on this one line. Andre Rodenbeck, chief executive officer for Rolling Stock at Siemens Mobility, says the company completed development of the Mireo Plus H hydrogen train right on schedule.
The trains run at half their designed speed
The trains are built to run 160 kilometers an hour, but the Heidekrautbahn track only allows 80, half the design speed, because the line still runs on infrastructure built for older diesel service. The manufacturer designed the switch to hydrogen to cut carbon dioxide, a gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and drives climate change, by 3,000 tonnes a year. The fuel cell supplier, Ballard Power Systems, reports a lower measured reduction after 9 months of daily service, about 2,500 tonnes a year. This article publishes the measured figure, not the design target, because it is the more recent number and it is the only 1 of the 2 that describes an actual result rather than a projection made before the trains ran a single day.
A dedicated hydrogen plant is being built to supply the line
A refuelling station opened at Basdorf on August 20, 2025, funded as part of a 25 million euro federal programme run through the National Innovation Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology. A dedicated hydrogen production plant at Wensickendorf starts supplying the line in 2026, with a capacity of 380 tonnes of hydrogen a year. The Heidekrautbahn trains are allocated 230 tonnes of that a year. This article subtracts 230 from the plant total of 380 tonnes to get 150 tonnes a year left for other regional buyers, a number no source states directly, showing the plant is not built to serve this rail line alone.
This article subtracts 230 from the plant total of 380 tonnes to get the 150 tonne figure, a number source 2 does not state directly. The plant is not built to serve this line alone.
Show the numbers
| Total annual production capacity | 380 |
| Reserved for the Heidekrautbahn trains | 230 |
| Left for other regional buyers | 150 |
A year of hydrogen service has not hurt punctuality
The regional transport authority Verkehrsverbund Berlin Brandenburg publishes a performance dashboard for this hydrogen train line, called RB27. In 2026, a year into daily hydrogen service, the line scored 92.2% for punctuality and 99.3% for reliability, with an overall fulfilment score of 84.7%, ranking 34th among the regional lines the dashboard tracks. The German Aerospace Center is running a study on the trains and the refuelling station, called H2BAR, collecting data once a second from both through 2035. Mathias Bohm, project lead at the German Aerospace Center Institute of Vehicle Concepts, says the study will produce scientific findings on how practical the hydrogen refuelling station and the trains are in regular passenger use, and on their cost and environmental impact.
These 3 figures are scored categories the transport authority publishes for this line for 2026, not 3 readings of the same measurement. The line ranks 34th among the regional lines the dashboard tracks, without stating the total number of lines ranked.
Show the numbers
| Punctuality | 92.2 |
| Reliability | 99.3 |
| Overall fulfilment | 84.7 |
The transport authority wants its entire regional network free of diesel by 2037, and treats this line as its first full scale test of whether hydrogen can do that job.