India hydrogen train ridership stays low 2 months after launch
India hydrogen train ridership has stayed low 2 months after the first hydrogen powered passenger train in India started carrying passengers between Jind and Sonipat in Haryana. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the train on July 17, 2026, on the 89 kilometer route. The train seats nearly 2,600 people, but by September 2026 it was carrying only 40 to 60 riders a day, according to India TV News. This site calculates that on a typical day, the train fills less than 3% of its seats, using the 2,600 seat figure and the 40 to 60 rider figure, both from that same report. Indian Railways has already cut the schedule from 2 trips a day, 6 days a week, at launch, to just 1 trip a day now, a change that is itself evidence of how far ridership has fallen short.
Daily ridership is a range, 40 to 60, as reported. This chart plots the top of that range, and the true daily figure can run as low as 40.
Show the numbers
| Seats on the train | 2,600 |
| Riders on a typical day | 60 |
The train has already gone faster than it is allowed to run
The shortfall sits alongside a separate mechanism, how fast Railways actually lets the train go. The manufacturer built the train to a design speed of over 130 kilometers an hour. The train has completed a test run at 120 kilometers an hour. It still runs commercially at just 75 kilometers an hour, the limit in place since launch. Satish Kumar, the Railway Board Chairman and CEO, described both figures directly.
The operational speed of the hydrogen train has so far been kept at 75 kmph.
Satish Kumar, Railway Board Chairman and CEO. Source 2.
However, trials have been completed for a speed of 120 kmph.
Satish Kumar, Railway Board Chairman and CEO. Source 2.
Kumar said Railways is now working toward an operational target of 110 kilometers an hour, a figure that sits between the speed the train has already reached in testing and the speed it runs at for paying passengers today.
The operational target Railways is now working toward sits between the 2 bars, at 110 kilometers an hour.
Show the numbers
| Current commercial speed | 75 |
| Speed reached in trials | 120 |
A longer route, not a better timetable, is the fix under study
Railways is now considering extending the train about 130 kilometers to Azadpur station near Delhi, close to Shakur Basti, the depot where the train is towed by diesel locomotive for scheduled maintenance, its hydrogen system shut down for that leg. That extension sits inside the current hydrogen range of the train, 250 to 300 kilometers a tank, according to India TV News, but the 10 coach train would need to grow toward the 18 to 20 coaches a typical Delhi commuter route runs. The manufacturer built the train with 8 fuel cells, the equipment that combines hydrogen with oxygen from the air to make electricity onboard, across 2 hydrogen driving power cars and 8 trailer coaches, and it burns about 300 kilograms of hydrogen a day at full load, according to India.com, while the Jind refueling facility can store nearly 3,000 kilograms at once. Indian Railways has set its own target of making its rail network net zero by 2030, and the country now joins Germany, Japan, China and the United States in running a hydrogen powered train at all, Germany first, in 2022. The harder test, proving a first of its kind train can carry the passengers a real commuter line needs, remains unresolved 2 months after the ribbon was cut.