https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/06/17/metrolinx-board-member-described-hydrogen-train-plan-as-madness.html
[links in online article]
Metrolinx board member described hydrogen train plan as ‘madness’
By Ben Spurr
Transportation Reporter
Sun., June 17, 2018
The outgoing Liberal government has described its plan to study hydrogen
trains for the GO Transit network as a bold and visionary exercise.
But soon after the transportation minister announced the initiative last
year, senior figures at Metrolinx privately expressed serious concerns,
with one board member describing the effort as a “folly” that could
endanger the public, and the agency’s new CEO doubting the “unproven”
technology would be ready in time for a major expansion of GO service.
On June 15, 2016, Steven Del Duca, who was Liberal transportation
minster at the time, made the surprise announcement that the province
and Metrolinx, the provincial agency responsible for transportation in
the GTHA, would look into using hydrogen-powered trains as part of the
GO expansion program called regional express rail (RER).
Estimated to cost $13.5 billion, RER is supposed to be complete by 2025.
Using hydrogen train technology, or “hydrail,” as part of the program
would be ambitious, to say the least. Although French manufacturer
Alstom said last year it plans to launch a fleet of 14 hydrogen trains
in Germany by 2021, the technology has never been deployed on the larger
type of bi-level cars GO operates.
Metrolinx estimates deploying hydrail for RER could require at least 70
hydrogen locomotives and 84 sets of four hydrogen-powered self-propelled
carriages by 2025. It would be the first use of hydrogen trains on such
a scale anywhere in the world.
According to documents obtained by the Star through a freedom of
information request, one day after Del Duca’s announcement, Howard
Shearer, a Metrolinx board member, sent agency chair Rob Prichard a
blistering email warning that the hydrogen project “must be taken
seriously for the folly it represents.”
“It is simply madness that the Ontario government is seriously
considering this,” wrote Shearer, who is also chief executive of Hitachi
Power Systems Canada and a board member of the Energy Council of Canada.
“One accident in the implementation of this technology presents grave
risk to government, public confidence and Metrolinx,” he said, arguing
the storage and distribution of hydrogen could be dangerous.
He predicted it would take “years beyond” the planned RER completion
date of 2025 for hydrail to accumulate a safety record Metrolinx could
trust, and argued the government’s “rush” to use the technology was
“reckless” and would “put lives at risk.”
Shearer doesn’t appear to have ever made his concerns public. He didn’t
raise the safety issue when hydrail was discussed at a public Metrolinx
board meeting two weeks after Del Duca’s announcement.
In an email to the Star last week, Shearer said he was satisfied with
how Metrolinx handled his concerns because the agency acted on his
recommendation to have the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, which has
experience with hydrogen technologies, take part in the study. He added
that his concerns about the early adoption of hydrogen technology
“remain the same.”
Although Transport Canada has yet to develop specific safety regulations
for hydrail, Metrolinx says hydrogen fuel technology is safe. A
feasibility study the agency published in February determined that while
“there are potential hazards,” including the risk of combustion, the
technology presents “no unresolvable safety issues.”
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.
Hydrail could potentially offer many benefits compared to a traditional
catenary system, including eliminating the need for the disruptive
implementation of an overhead wire system along hundreds of kilometres
of track.
Metrolinx’s study concluded “it should be technically feasible to build
and operate a hydrail system for the GO network” but said pursuing the
technology carried risks, including potential delays to RER and high
costs caused by fluctuating electricity prices.
“It is critical for us to understand where technology and innovation is
leading worldwide and to undertake appropriate due diligence,” said
agency spokesperson Suniya Kukaswadia in an email.
“If a hydrogen powered train can meet the highest of safety standards,
our service needs and reduce costs, we should be looking at it as other
countries have done.”
The incoming Conservative government has not said whether it plans to
make changes to the hydrogen project.