Metrolinx board member described hydrogen train plan as ‘madness’
By
BEN SPURRTransportation Reporter
Sun., June 17, 2018
[...]
Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster also expressed reservations about hydrail, not about safety but about the wisdom of potentially pinning the success of RER on an unproven technology.
Weeks before Verster officially took office on Oct. 1, 2017, he received an update on the hydrail program from Metrolinx staff.
Afterward, he sent an email to two Metrolinx executives. “I sense that there may be a fundamental stumbling block — the application is untested in a train application, without a reference system and without the development kinks ironed out?” he wrote on Sept. 11, 2017.
“This is in itself a showstopper because we cannot risk the annual benefit from RER on a belief the train builder will resolve such issues on time.”
He noted that “train builders often struggle to deliver standard, existing technology trains.”
“I therefore cannot see how we can include this in the RER scope as it is simply not ready as an application and it is unproven,” he wrote.
In an interview with the Star last week, Verster said he wrote the email to express concern about potentially committing to hydrogen for the GO expansion.
Instead, Metrolinx has decided it will leave it up to the companies bidding on RER whether to propose hydrogen or stick with conventional electrification. Metrolinx plans to issue the request for proposals to design, build and operate RER in early 2019.
Verster said he supports this more cautious approach, and backs the hydrogen initiative as due diligence to ensure Metrolinx doesn’t miss out on potentially transformative technology.
“If there’s an opportunity for something, for this technology to prove feasible, it is worth considering,” he said.
Verster described the September 2017 email as consistent with his public statements on the issue. He told reporters last fall “we are not going to take risks and jeopardize (RER) with technology that isn’t fully proven.”
As part of its assessment, Metrolinx is planning to pay three manufacturers up to $1 million each to develop a concept for a hydrogen-powered locomotive and has contracted Alstom and Siemens at $1.5 million each to design self-propelled carriages. The companies are expected to complete the work this year.
Metrolinx will also pay Hydrogenics, a Mississauga-based company that is supplying hydrogen fuel cells for the trains Alstom plans to operate in Germany, up to $970,000 to provide “support” to the manufacturers.
Including the design work, feasibility study and a hydrail symposium Metrolinx hosted last fall, the entire assessment project is expected to cost at least $10.9 million.
The involvement of a GTA-based hydrogen company was central to Metrolinx’s plans, with the agency stating one of the goals of the project was to help position the province as “a global leader in hydrogen technology.”
In a speech at the hydrail symposium in November, Del Duca said hydrail was “a win for Ontario-based know-how. And that’s good news for our province’s economy.”
“This is about vision. This is about aspiration. This is about innovation,” he said.
Critics of the plan say it’s not Metrolinx’s responsibility to foster economic activity in the province.
RER would involve nearly quadrupling weekly GO trips by 2025, and electrification is a vital component of the plan. Electric trains can accelerate and decelerate faster than diesels, and are necessary to run the more frequent service.
Until Del Duca’s announcement last June, the province had planned to electrify large sections of the GO network using the traditional system of overhead wiring, called a catenary.
Metrolinx considers hydrail a form of electrification because hydrogen fuel is produced through electrolysis, a process that uses electricity to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. An on-board hydrogen fuel cell powers the train, and the only exhaust is steam and condensed water.
