Russia pushes back its first hydrogen powered passenger train on Sakhalin to late 2027 or early 2028

Hydrogen powered train Russia is building for Sakhalin slips again

Russia is building its first hydrogen powered passenger train for Sakhalin, an island region in the far east of the country with no electrified rail line, and the date keeps moving. Construction and assembly of 2 pilot trainsets are on track to finish by the end of 2026, according to Russian Railways, the national rail operator, Transmashholding, the manufacturer, and the Sakhalin regional government. Ivan Kolesnikov, deputy general director of Russian Railways, said in September 2026 that the train will not carry its first paying passenger before late 2027 or early 2028. That is a year later than an estimate given in January 2026 by the director of the regional Eastern Hydrogen Cluster management company, who put commercial operation at 2028 to 2029. Russian Railways runs the railway itself, so its date is the one to trust here, and it is also the more recent statement.

A train built to run without a wire overhead

A hydrogen powered train makes its own electricity onboard, combining hydrogen gas with oxygen from the air, so it needs no overhead wire and no diesel tank. The rail network on Sakhalin runs on the standard 1520 millimeter track gauge used across Russia and has never had one of these trains. The 2 pilot trainsets, 1 built with 2 rail cars and 1 with 3, are being assembled at the Demikhovo plant run by Transmashholding, which started work in February 2026, with a second production line at the Tver Wagon Building Plant. The 2 car trainset is rated for 725 kilometers on hydrogen alone, plus a further 80 kilometers from onboard energy storage. The 3 car trainset covers less ground, 487 kilometers on hydrogen plus 40 more from storage, carrying more passengers over a shorter run. Once certified, the train will operate on one of the routes of the Yuzhno Sakhalinsk agglomeration, the area around the regional capital, according to Valery Limarenko, the governor of Sakhalin region.

After certification, Russia's first passenger train running on hydrogen fuel will operate on one of the routes of the Yuzhno Sakhalinsk agglomeration.

Valery Limarenko, governor of Sakhalin region. Source 4.

The project has already missed one of its own dates

The fuel cells in the train, the equipment that turns hydrogen and air into electricity, are currently made in China, with domestic production targeted only from 2027, the same year Russian Railways now expects the train to begin carrying passengers. The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia has already paid the Tver Wagon Building Plant 400 million rubles in subsidies between 2022 and 2024 to help build the fleet. The project itself traces to a 2019 agreement between Russian Railways, Transmashholding, the state nuclear company Rosatom and the Sakhalin regional government, with its concept first shown publicly in 2024 at the Far Eastern Economic Forum. It has slipped before. In 2021, the chief engineer at Russian Railways said hydrogen powered rail buses would already be running on Sakhalin by 2024. None did. The current target for a paying passenger, late 2027 or early 2028, is now at least 3 years past that 2021 forecast, a pattern of the operator behind the project missing its own predicted dates rather than a single missed announcement. Wider hydrogen ambitions for the region are larger still. A planned hydrogen production plant described as export focused is sized at up to 30,000 tons a year, dwarfing a separate, medium capacity plant of up to 2,000 tons a year planned to supply the region itself, of which this train is a small and repeatedly delayed part.

Today, the creation of a hydrogen train is at a very early stage.

Kirill Lipa, chief executive officer of Transmashholding. Source 1.