Which countries actually have hydrogen powered trains carrying passengers today
A hydrogen train uses a fuel cell, a device that turns hydrogen gas into electricity, to power an electric motor instead of burning diesel or drawing electricity from an overhead wire. Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom are often named together as the 3 countries running them. Asking which countries actually have hydrogen powered trains carrying passengers today gives a narrower answer, only 1. The Lower Saxony network in Germany has carried riders on hydrogen trains since August 2022. Japan and the United Kingdom have not.
Germany bought 14 hydrogen trains and is running 4
The transport authority in Lower Saxony ordered 14 Coradia iLint trains, a hydrogen powered model built by Alstom, for the RB33 route between Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervorde and Buxtehude. Evb, the operator, put 5 into service at launch on August 24, 2022. On September 15, 2022, one of the trains set a world record, running 1,175 kilometers on a single tank of hydrogen.
By August 2025, only 4 of the 14 trains were running. CleanTechnica reports the rest were waiting on replacement fuel cell modules, with diesel trains filling the schedule gap.
The 2022 and 2025 figures are 2 readings of the same fleet 3 years apart, not a disagreement between sources. The 2025 figure comes from source 3, the ordered total and the 2022 figure come from source 2.
Show the numbers
| Trains ordered | 14 |
| Running 2022 | 5 |
| Running 2025 | 4 |
The hydrogen refuelling station built for the network cost about 10 million euros and was designed to refuel 12 trains a day. With only 4 trains running, it is working at about a third of that designed capacity.
The station design and the running count are source 3. The 14 ordered trains figure is source 2. With only 4 trains running, the station works at about a third of the 12 a day it was built to refuel.
Show the numbers
| Trains the station can refuel a day | 12 |
| Trains originally ordered | 14 |
| Trains actually running, August 2025 | 4 |
Lower Saxony has committed 81.3 million euros to buying the trains and maintaining them for 30 years, and the federal government has added about 8.4 million euros. The refuelling station is a separate 10 million euro cost. Lower Saxony expects to decide whether to expand the station between 2029 and 2032, when it also plans its first large battery electric fleet.
These 3 figures come from the same paragraph in source 3 and cover different parts of the programme, the train purchase and 30 years of maintenance for the first 2 bars, the refuelling station for the third. They are not meant to be added into 1 total.
Show the numbers
| Lower Saxony state | 81.3 |
| Federal government | 8.4 |
| Refuelling station | 10 |
Japan has tested since 2022 and has no paying rider yet
JR East, the railway operator for eastern Japan, has run a hydrogen train called HYBARI on demonstration test runs on the Tsurumi and Nambu lines since March 2022. On July 14, 2026, the company announced a commercial launch target, the end of fiscal 2027. In Japan the fiscal year starts around April, so the target falls around April 2027, more than 5 years after testing began. HYBARI stores hydrogen at 35 megapascals, a measure of how hard the gas inside the tank is compressed, and runs about 70 kilometers on a single refill.
The United Kingdom has no hydrogen train carrying scheduled passengers
The only working hydrogen rail vehicle in the United Kingdom is a converted diesel shunting locomotive, launched February 26, 2026, at the Severn Valley Railway heritage line in Kidderminster. A shunting locomotive moves rail cars and other trains around inside a depot or yard. It does not carry fare paying passengers along a timetable. The Severn Valley Railway launch announcement, published by the heritage line that built and runs the vehicle, states guests rode behind the locomotive, called HydroShunter, on launch day in a vintage observation saloon, a one time event rather than scheduled service.
There is already a lot of real interest from potential customers who want to benefit from zero emissions, reduced noise, and improved operating costs in a retrofit solution.
Dr Alexander Burrows, chief executive officer of Vanguard Sustainable Transport Solutions, speaking about the HydroShunter. Source 1.
The actual plan in the United Kingdom for a hydrogen train that could carry regular passengers is a 2021 agreement between Alstom and Eversholt Rail to build 10 three car hydrogen trains, called Breeze, based on the Aventra platform made by Alstom. No source read for this article states a confirmed date for Breeze to begin carrying passengers.