India Just Launched Its First Hydrogen Train - Here's How It Works | Connecting The Dots

[00:00:00]Imagine boarding a train that does not run on diesel. It does not depend on overhead electric wires either. Instead, it carries its own power plant on board, generating electricity using hydrogen, one of the cleanest fuels known to mankind. And as it moves, the only direct byproducts are water vapor and heat. It may sound like the future, but that future has now arrived in India. On 17th July 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off India's first hydrogen fuel cell part train, marking a major milestone in the country's journey towards cleaner and more sustainable transportation.

[00:01:02]step beach hydrogen train.

[00:01:13]The launch places India among a select group of countries including Germany, Japan, China and the United States that are exploring hydrogen-powered rail technology. But what exactly is a hydrogen train? How does it work? If hydrogen is highly flammable, how safe is it? And could this become the future of Indian railways? Hello and welcome to Connecting the Dots. I'm Unman Pacharia.

[00:01:42]Let's connect the dots.

[00:01:47]For more than 170 years, Indian railways has continuously reinvented itself.

[00:01:55]The country's first passenger train which ran between Bombay and Tane in 1853 was powered by steam. That gave way to diesel locomotives. Then came large-s scale electrification. Today more than 99% of Indian railways broad cage network has been electrified significantly reducing dependence on imported diesel.

[00:02:19]Now comes the next technological leap. A train that generates its own electricity on board using hydrogen. Unlike conventional electric trains that draw power from overhead wires, a hydrogen fuel cell train carries hydrogen in specially designed storage cylinders.

[00:02:41]Inside the train, hydrogen combines with oxygen from the surrounding air inside a proton exchange membrane or PEM fuel cell. This chemical reaction produces electricity. That electricity powers the traction motors which move the train.

[00:02:58]And unlike diesel engines, there is no combustion. The only direct byproducts are water vapor and heat. No smoke, no tailpipe carbon emissions. It's one of the reasons hydrogen fuel cell technology is attracting global attention as countries search for cleaner alternatives to fossil fuels.

[00:03:18]The hydrogen-powered train is not intended to replace every train overnight. Instead, it is a pilot project designed to test how hydrogen technology performs under real operating conditions. The experience gained from train operations and maintenance to refueling and safety will help Indian railways evaluate how hydrogen can contribute to the future of sustainable rail transport.

[00:03:45]The initiative also supports India's national green hydrogen mission which aims to accelerate the production and use of green hydrogen across sectors while contributing to the country's long-term goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions.

[00:04:03]For Indian railways, this project is about much more than introducing a new train. It is about building an entire hydrogen ecosystem from onboard propulsion technology to dedicated storage, refueling infrastructure, operating procedures and safety systems.

[00:04:21]And that journey begins in Hana on the 89 km Jin Sony section of Northern Railway where India's first hydrogen fuel cell powered passenger train has now entered service.

[00:04:35]So what makes this train different from every other passenger train running in the country? That's where the engineering story begins. At first glance, India's hydrogen train may look like any other modern passenger train.

[00:04:50]But beneath its exterior is an entirely different propulsion system. The train consists of 10 coaches including two hydrogen driving power cars, one at each end and eight trailer coaches in between. Each driving power car houses hydrogen storage cylinders, proton exchange membrane fuel cells, and lithium ion phosphate batteries.

[00:05:12]Together, these systems generate and manage the electricity needed to power the train under different operating conditions. The train has an operational speed of 75 km per hour, while its design speed is 110 km per hour. It has been configured to carry around 2,600 passengers making it significantly larger than most hydrogen passenger trains currently operating or under pilot deployment globally.

[00:05:41]India's first hydrogen train has been designed on a much larger scale to assess whether hydrogen technology can support higher capacity passenger operations.

[00:06:08]Coachali hydrogen train.

[00:06:16]Behind this train is years of research, engineering and system integration. The project has been designed, engineered and integrated in India reflecting the vision of Atman Bharat hydrogen trained.

[00:06:56]But building the train was only part of the challenge. Unlike diesel, hydrogen cannot simply be filled at a conventional fuel station. It requires an entirely new ecosystem for production, storage, compression and dispensing. And that infrastructure has now been created at Jind. Indian Railways has established the country's largest railway hydrogen storage and refueling facility there. The integrated facility can store nearly 3,000 kg of hydrogen at a time and has been developed specifically to support hydrogen-powered railway operations.

[00:07:31]Hydrogen is produced through electrolysis where electricity is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

[00:07:38]The hydrogen is then compressed and stored before being dispensed to the train through dedicated refueling systems.

[00:07:47]But whenever hydrogen is mentioned, one question naturally comes to mind. Is it safe? Hydrogen is colorless, odorless and highly flammable. That is precisely why the Indian Railway says safety has been built into every layer of the project from the train itself to the refueling station.

[00:08:10]Instead of relying on a single safeguard, several independent systems continuously monitor hydrogen storage, transfer, and utilization. Hydrogen leak detectors, flame detectors, and heat sensors have been installed both on the train and at the refueling facility.

[00:08:30]Continuous ventilation prevents hydrogen from accumulating in enclosed spaces. If any abnormality is detected, the system can automatically shut off the hydrogen supply without waiting for manual intervention. The local pilot also has access to realtime information on the health of the propulsion system while a dedicated emergency operating mode allows the train to be moved to a safe location if required. The maintenance facility at Shakurbasti in Delhi has also been prepared for hydrogen train operations. During the initial phase, trained and certified technical personnel are accompanying the train while the hydrogen refueling system remains under roundthe-clock monitoring.

[00:09:20]Hydrogen-p powered trains are still at an early stage of development around the world. Germany became the first country to introduce commercial hydrogen passenger trains. While countries including France, Italy, Japan, China and the United States are pursuing pilot projects or limited deployments. For India, this is not just about introducing a new train.

[00:09:44]It is about understanding how hydrogen technology performs under Indian operating conditions, developing the supporting infrastructure, training specialized manpower and building technical expertise for the future. The experience gained from the Jin Sony project will help Indian railways evaluate the wider use of hydrogen-powered mobility in the years ahead.

[00:10:08]The Ministry of Railways is also exploring the deployment of hydrogen technology on heritage railway routes including the Kala Shimla railway using the operational experience gained from this pilot project. The technology however is still evolving. Hydrogen-p powered trains are currently more expensive than conventional alternatives and experts believe wider adoption will depend on technological advances, economies of scale and the availability of affordable green hydrogen. That is precisely why pilot projects like this are important. They provide real world operational data that can help shape future policy and investment decisions.

[00:10:54]So to sum it up, from the steam locomotive that first rolled out of Bombay in 1853 to diesel engines that transformed long-d distanceance travel to one of the world's largest electrified railway networks, Indian railways has continually evolved with changing technology. The hydrogen fuel cell powered train is the latest chapter in that journey. Whether hydrogen eventually becomes a common feature across India's railway network will depend on future technological progress, operational experience and economic viability. But the first step has now been taken and sometimes the most important journeys are not measured by the distance a train travels but by the direction in which it takes a nation.

[00:11:56]Pakistan's health care system is facing serious questions again and once again the victims are children. More than 130 people, most of them children, have tested HIV positive in connection with an outbreak linked to government-run hospitals in Karachi.

[00:12:19]Across the country, children keep testing positive for HIV, not through birth, not through their parents, but through the very clinics and hospitals meant to treat them. And this is not a one-off tragedy. It's a pattern that keeps repeating year after year in different cities, different hospitals, always with the same root cause.

[00:12:44]>> It was shocking for me. I was astonished at the time that in a simal baby only having history of doctor's practices why she has got this uh HIV. So uh and after coming to know that she has HIV I made my practice routine in a routine to go for the screening of each and everybody who was having same uh symptoms.

[00:13:05]>> Once screening starts the true scale always comes out.

[00:13:10]>> In 2 months I had found 20 cases all those who are having the same history all those who are having the same uh symptoms and they all were positive for the HIV. That is the pattern investigators keep running into.

[00:13:25]Government inquiries keep pointing to the same failures. Poor infection control, careless handling of protective equipment, and singleuse syringes that clearly are not being used just once.

[00:13:40]Investigations keep confirming infections in the dozens and child deaths with medical staff repeatedly named as responsible. And it's never confined to one facility. It surfaces again and again in public hospitals and private clinics alike because the failure behind it is never actually fixed. Families living through this describe the same shock no matter where they are.

[00:14:10]>> I got my daughter tested to confirm that she was HIV positive. It could be contagious to all my children. My husband and I are HIV negative. but my daughter has the HIV virus.

[00:14:21]>> That single sentence explains how this virus keeps spreading in Pakistan.

[00:14:27]Parents test negative, children test positive. That only happens one way, through contaminated medical equipment, not through child birth. Health officials confirm the same story every time an outbreak gets investigated.

[00:14:48]In the past 9 days, we have tested 4,73 people. Of them, 185 are HIV positive and the large number are children.

[00:15:03]>> So, what's actually driving this nationwide? A health care system that keeps cutting corners at every level.

[00:15:11]Syringes and IV drip sets get reused across public hospitals and private clinics. Health workers puncture the same medicine vial with the same syringe body over and over and even with a fresh needle that contaminates the vial itself, exposing every patient who gets medicine from it afterward. In underresourced areas, unregistered clinics run by untrained practitioners operate with zero oversight, reusing equipment and recycling medical waste just to cut costs. There is also a cultural factor, a widespread belief that injections and IV drips work faster than pills. So children with routine illnesses like fever, cough or diarrhea get unnecessary jabs and every extra jab is another chance to hit a contaminated needle. On top of that, blood banks across the country routinely fail to screen donations properly, putting children who need transfusions, especially those with conditions like thalismia, directly in harm's way.

[00:16:23]Pakistan already carries one of the world's highest burdens of hepatitis C.

[00:16:28]A clear warning sign of how deep these infection control failures run. And once families are infected, the system abandons them just as badly as it infected them.

[00:16:45]There >> is a marginal improvement in her condition. She's still suffering from fever with chest congestion. The government does not give us Septron. No multivitamins are given to us. What kind of help is this from the government?

[00:17:00]No medicine, no follow-up care, just silence from the same system whose negligence caused the infection. And for families without money, even basic testing is out of reach.

[00:17:18]They suggest that we get medical tests from a private clinic. We don't have enough money. We have to take care of feeding our family. How can we pay for this treatment? I don't have the financial means for ultrasound tests.

[00:17:33]Not only me, but all the villages are poor.

[00:17:39]>> The national numbers confirm this is systemic, not a string of isolated accidents. The WHO says Pakistan now has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the region with infections up 200% in 15 years. Around 350,000 people are living with HIV in Pakistan and nearly 80% don't even know it. Among children, infections have more than tripled in the past decade. Yet only about 38% of HIV positive children are getting any treatment at all and only a small fraction of pregnant women who need therapy to prevent transmission actually receive it. Diseases spread when health care systems fail to protect people.

[00:18:30]Every reused syringe, every ignored safety protocol, every unregulated clinic carries a human cost. And in Pakistan, that cost keeps falling on children who never had a say in any of it.

[00:18:49]That's all in this edition of Connecting the Dots. We'll see you in the next episode with more raging issues. Until then, it's a goodbye from all of us in the Delhi newsroom. This is Mun Parachary signing off. Take care and stay safe.