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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Collision with a fuel cell and hydrogen train

Event

Event ID
1218
Quality
Description
An accident occurred between a tractor and an hydrogen and fuel cells train at an unguarded level crossing. The driver of the tractor, which had also a trailer, apparently failed to see the train. The train driver attempted to make an emergency stop but was unable to prevent the collision with the tractor.
The train derailed and the tractor was destroyed by the impact (its driver severely injured).
The train's 13 passengers were uninjured. The conductor suffered a shock.
The firefighters secured the vehicle involved in the accident and collected leaking operating fluids. The material damage caused by the accident is initially estimated at several tens of thousands of euros.
The train was lifted back onto the track. The single-track railway line will remain closed until further notice.
There was no damage to the hydrogen storage system onboard or to any other hydrogen system.
Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
No Hydrogen Release
Macro-region
Europe
Country
Germany
Date
Main component involved?
Fcev Train
How was it involved?
No Release
Initiating cause
Impact, Rollover, Crash
Root causes
Root CAUSE analysis
The INITIATING CAUSE was the collision between the train and the tractor.
The ROOT CAUSE was a human error, the tractor driver which oversaw the arrival of a train at an unguarded level crossing. An in-depth analysis considering the hazards implicit in the level crossing, aiming at identifying possible other causes, is not available.

Facility

Application
Non-Road Vehicles
Sub-application
FC train
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected
train
Location type
Open
Location description
Countriside Or Desert
Operational condition
Description of the facility/unit/process/substances
DESCRIPTION OF THE FACILITY
The train consisted of two wagons, a max speed of 140 km/h and a range autonomy from approximately 600 to 800 km.
Onboard hydrogen storage: total of 188 kg, 94 kg on each of the two wagons, in 24 pressurised canisters at 350 bar.
(from https://www.railvolution.net/news/fuel-cell-coradia-ilint-on-test#:~:text=Technical%20Evaluation,circuit%2C%20the%20pertinent%20equation%20being:)

Emergency & Consequences

Number of injured persons
1
Number of fatalities
0
Environmental damage
0
Property loss (offsite)
0
Post-event summary
The level of damage to the train is unknown. Judging fro mthe only photo provided, it seems that only minor front area damagaes occurred.

Lesson Learnt

Lesson Learnt

This is an incident involving a fuel cell and hydrogen vehicle, which nevertheless did not affect the hydrogen systems, and must to be classified as 'conventional incident' .

Event Nature

Release type
no release
Involved substances (% vol)
n.a.
Release duration
n.a.
Release rate
n.a.
Released amount
0
Actual pressure (MPa)
35
Design pressure (MPa)
35
Presumed ignition source
No release

References

Reference & weblink

FCW online news:<br />
https://fuelcellsworks.com/2025/09/17/fuel-cells/hydrogen-train-crash-i… />
(accessed September 2025)

JRC assessment