Germany chooses hydrogen powered trains instead of electric trains
Around 40% of the German rail network has no overhead wire, the cable above the tracks that powers an electric train, according to VDE, the German association of electrical, electronic and information technology industries, as of September 2025. Rather than pay to string new wire over that gap, 3 German regions are choosing hydrogen powered trains instead of electric trains, trains that make their own electricity onboard by combining hydrogen gas with oxygen from the air, and need no wire at all. Lower Saxony already runs the results. Bavaria is about to start. Hesse shows what happens when the choice goes wrong.
The Lower Saxony figure is source 1, the Hesse figure is source 4, and the Bavaria figure is source 3. The Bavaria line has not started hydrogen service yet, its first trains arrive late 2026, the other 2 lines are already running.
Show the numbers
| Lower Saxony | 126 |
| Hesse, Taunusbahn | 77.7 |
| Bavaria, Sudostbayernbahn | 32.3 |
Lower Saxony already runs the results
Lower Saxony, a state in northern Germany, has run 14 hydrogen trains since August 24, 2022, on a 126 kilometer route connecting Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervorde and Buxtehude, according to LNVG, the state transport authority that owns the fleet. The trains, a model called Coradia iLint built by Alstom, replaced 15 diesel locomotives outright. The line was built for diesel and never wired for overhead power, so the choice facing Lower Saxony was hydrogen trains against a wiring project, not hydrogen trains against electric trains already running there.
Bavaria orders 3 more hydrogen trains for 2026
Bavaria is next. Siemens Mobility is building 3 Mireo Plus H hydrogen trains for the Sudostbayernbahn network, a 32.3 kilometer route from Muhldorf through Tussling to Burghausen with 8 stations, according to a press release from Siemens Mobility, the manufacturer building the trains. The trains enter service late 2026, reach a top speed of 140 kilometers an hour, and travel up to 1,200 kilometers on a single tank of hydrogen, refueling in around 15 minutes. Deutsche Bahn, the German national rail operator, is building the hydrogen plant that will fuel them at Muhldorf.
We are proud to be delivering Mireo Plus H hydrogen trains to Deutsche Bahn and thus enabling emission free mobility in our home region.
Andre Rodenbeck, CEO Rolling Stock at Siemens Mobility, speaking about the Bavaria order. Source 3.
The Lower Saxony count is source 1, the Hesse count is sources 4 and 5, matching, and the Bavaria count is source 3. Bavaria is drawn in the second color because its 3 trains are ordered, not yet in passenger service.
Show the numbers
| Lower Saxony | 14 |
| Hesse Taunusbahn | 27 |
| Bavaria | 3 |
Hesse shows the same choice going wrong
In Hesse, the Taunusbahn line took the same choice and got a rougher result. Its 27 hydrogen train fleet cancelled 19% of scheduled services in its first year and forced a temporary partial return to diesel trains in 2025 while the fleet was retrofitted, according to Railway News. The operator, RMV, set a completion target of 95% and has recovered to around 90%. Passengers who lived through the cancellations were offered 2 months of free travel, and a 49 euro monthly credit for anyone holding an annual pass.
The Taunusbahn project also cost far more than wiring the line would have. Hackaday, a technology news site, worked out from its own cited cost figures, not a number handed to it by either side, that the 500 million euro hydrogen project cost about 6 times the 77.7 million euros that fully electrifying the same 77.7 kilometer line would have cost, at the approximately 1 million euro per kilometer rate it cites for Germany and France. Hydrogen also loses more energy along the way than wiring does. Producing, storing, moving and using hydrogen loses up to 70% of the energy that goes in, Hackaday reports, against over 80% efficiency for a train that draws power directly from a wire. Lower Saxony and Hesse chose the same fix for the same gap in the network, and the tracks that were never wired now carry 2 very different results.