The Romanian Railway Reform Authority (RRA) has cancelled a tender to acquire 12 hydrogen-powered trains.
The decision was made automatically in the public procurement system, SEAP, due to no offers being submitted. The previous bidding procedure last November (2023) was also cancelled due to non-compliance of the sole offer submitted by the Alstom-Linde Gas consortium.
The total value of the project was over 868m lei ($189m) and funded through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The majority of this was funded through European grants, with the remainder via a state contribution.
RRA will now initiate a new market consultation, before it determines its future strategy for the acquisition of the 12 hydrogen-powered trains.
The auction was first cancelled over a year ago, when no offers were attracted last February, prior to the Alstom-Linde Gas submission was deemed non-compliant.
Zillertalbahn recently cancelled its plans for the supply of eight hydrogen trains in Austria, instead shifting the focus to batteries.
LNVG, the state-owned public transport company in Germany, also turned to an all-electric approach for its train fleet, due to the improved cost effectiveness of them.
The company unveiled the “world’s first” hydrogen railway in 2022 and had invested over €90m ($97m) in 14 hydrogen fuel cell trains developed by Alstom. The government of Lower Saxony had also contributed funding to develop a hydrogen refuelling system for passenger trains in Bremervörde.
Read more:Linde claims world first hydrogen refuelling system for passenger trains