Network Rail, working with rail and energy partners Freightliner and GeoPura, has transported hydrogen for the first time on Britain’s rail network, marking a major step forward for both the rail and energy sectors.
The milestone was achieved at Network Rail’s Test Tracks site in Tuxford, where freight operator Freightliner hauled a train of gas containers from Doncaster to High Marnham – marking Britain’s first shipment of hydrogen by rail.
It was part of a rail and energy industry innovation event showcasing several hydrogen initiatives. This included the first re-engineered hydrogen-powered shunting locomotive – seen as a step towards replacing diesel – another milestone towards the rail industry’s goal of becoming net zero. The event also demonstrated HPU hydrogen-powered generators, lighting towers and support vehicles.
Network Rail’s site at Tuxford runs all the way to High Marnham, where it sits adjacent to HyMarnham Power, the UK’s largest green hydrogen production facility operated by GeoPura and JG Pears. Built on the site of a former coal-fired power station, HyMarnham Power is one of the world’s first rail-connected hydrogen production facilities, and Network Rail’s Tuxford site will be the world’s first net-zero railway testing facility.
Currently, hydrogen is transported by road. This breakthrough marks a major step towards the rail network becoming a ready-made hydrogen distribution system, a rolling pipeline, with connections to all major industrial and urban centres across Britain – proving the practical capability of rail to transport hydrogen at scale. Hydrogen will also be utilised to decarbonise wider rail operations, from construction to ongoing maintenance and off-grid operations.
Leevan Finney, Network Rail’s Engineering Services Director, said:
“Rail is the greenest form of long-distance transport, and we, as an industry, are working hard to decarbonise transport and achieve net zero. For 200 years the railway has connected communities and major industry across Britain. The railway has the potential to be a strategic hydrogen distribution network in the future, as it has been for energy for many years.
“By bringing together rail and energy innovators here at Test Tracks in Tuxford, we’re accelerating Britain’s journey to net zero and showing how rail and energy sectors can work together to deliver sustainable transport and energy distribution.”
