16 diesel-powered Lint41 trains will replace Alstom’s hydrogen trains on the RB15 Bad Homburg – Brandoberndorf line next year. In recent months, the Rhein-Main Transport Association and the operator, Regionalverkehre Start Deutschland GmbH, have made intensive efforts to organize replacements for the hydrogen trains, and these have now been successful. The diesel replacement vehicles will gradually take over journeys in January 2025 and are rented until the end of next year. The RB12 Königstein – Frankfurt line will continue to be operated with hydrogen trains.
At the same time, Alstom is carrying out a general overhaul of the error-prone technical components of the iLint vehicles in order to ensure long-term, reliable operation in the Taunus network beyond 2025.
RMV Supervisory Board Chairman and District Administrator of the Hochtaunus District, Ulrich Krebs, said: “By resorting to the tried-and-tested diesel trains, we are achieving the most important thing: a reliable range of journeys on the Taunus Railway for our citizens. But it is also true that diesel trains no longer have a future in the long term. It is all the more regrettable that Alstom has done a disservice to trust in new types of drive with the two-year series of breakdowns.”
“After we finally achieved the reliability that our passengers rightly demanded in the summer, they were again the victims of technical problems with the hydrogen trains from late summer onwards. The responsible manufacturer Alstom has now taken ad hoc measures such as ramping up production of important spare parts and additional shifts for the workshop staff to ensure that there is a sufficient number of vehicles available for the stabilization timetable by the time the diesel trains start operating. Alstom must make intensive use of the coming year to finally get the fleet fit and reliable in the long term,” says RMV Managing Director Prof. Knut Ringat. “Alstom continues to bear additional costs such as renting the replacement fleet.”
Photo of Alstom
Press release https://shorturl.at/BMPaU
