Spain's Train Crisis Was A Wake-Up Call. Could Hydrail Trains Be The Answer?

Forbes

16-05-2025

People wait outside the Atocha train station in Madrid after its closure as a massive power outage ... More hits Spain on April 28, 2025. Power went out across all of Spain and Portugal today, cutting cellphone and internet networks, halting trains and trapping people in elevators, officials said. The operator, Red Electrica, said it would likely take six to 10 hours to restore power in the country and urged people not to speculate as to the cause of the outage. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP) (Photo by THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)
In the middle of the day on 28 April 2025, Spain lived a modern replay of the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. In the film, paternalistic aliens cut electricity worldwide to force humanity to reconsider its nuclear arms race. In Spain's case, there were no aliens—just an all-too-human failure in the electric grid. But the result was eerily similar: everything stopped.
Like much of Europe, Spain's rail system still depends on 19th-century overhead electrification—a technology first developed in Tsarist Russia. What once marked a leap in industrial modernity has become an ageing and increasingly fragile network. A single fault in the grid, even hundreds of kilometres away, can bring entire train systems to a halt. That April day in Spain, it did exactly that.
Passengers stranded in the open countryside were the lucky ones. Those caught in tunnels faced a darker, more claustrophobic ordeal.
But this high-profile failure has cast new light on an alternative Spain has been quietly exploring for almost two decades: hydrail, or hydrogen-powered rail. Unlike conventional electric trains that depend on external power lines, hydrail carries its energy onboard in the form of compressed or liquid hydrogen. No wires. No dependency on the grid. Just trains that keep moving—even when everything else doesn't.
Widespread adoption of hydrail would have made the April paralysis all but impossible. More than that, it would represent a significant leap in energy diversification and resilience—two things climate-stressed infrastructure now urgently needs.
Spain wasn't caught entirely off guard. In fact, it was one of the first countries to seriously explore hydrogen-powered rail. In 2006, Dr Carlos Navas attended the Second International Hydrail Conference in Herning, Denmark. Two years later, he hosted the Fourth Conference in Valencia. By 2011, Spain's narrow-gauge operator FEVE had already demonstrated a hydrogen tram in the Principality of Asturias—years ahead of similar efforts in China or Germany.
Today, Spain is set to lead again. A recent breakthrough positions the country to pioneer high-speed hydrail. The driver? Economics. With low population density in many regions, Spain faces some of the highest per-passenger track electrification costs in Europe: "Very roughly," says Stan Thompson, co-founder of the Mooresville Hydrail Initiative, 'in US dollars, the capital cost of new track electrification is around $15 milion per track mile.' Hydrail, by contrast, offers a cheaper and more flexible solution that sidesteps the need for costly fixed-line electrification.
Spain is not alone. Germany is already running the Saltzgitter-built Coradia iLint. China has deployed hydrogen trams in Foshan. And this summer, the first U.S. hydrogen passenger line opens in California between San Bernardino and Redlands.
TOPSHOT - Passengers wait along a platform to board a train at Santa Justa railway station in ... More Seville on April 29, 2025, the day after a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France. Electricity was restored to almost all of Spain and Portugal on April 29 morning, allowing a gradual return to normal life in the two countries, which were hit on April 28 by a giant blackout that lasted up to ten or even twenty hours depending on the region. The return of power has enabled rail traffic to be restored on several major routes, including Madrid-Seville and Madrid-Barcelona, according to the national company Renfe. However, traffic remains suspended on several other major routes, as the authorities have given priority to restoring suburban trains. (Photo by CRISTINA QUICLER / AFP) (Photo by CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP via Getty Images)
Thompson – the man who coined the term 'hydrail' in 2003 – sees the writing on the wall for traditional electrification. 'With the soaring cost of copper as we 'electrify everything,' the old model is becoming unsustainable,' he says. New overhead lines are not only expensive to install—they're also costly to maintain, at roughly $150,000 per mile per year.
As long as the global push for electrification continues, copper is expected to remain a strategic bottleneck—and a rising cost factor in infrastructure projects like electrified rail. Copper prices are hitting record highs in 2025 due to unprecedented demand from the global energy transition, technological advancements, and infrastructure upgrades, all while supply growth is hampered by production challenges and slow mine development. Geopolitical uncertainty and trade policies are adding to the price volatility and upward pressure.
In a copper-scarce world, hydrail offers unique advantages: hydrail systems use substantially less copper than traditional electrified rail because they eliminate the need for copper-intensive trackside power delivery systems. Copper use is largely limited to the train itself, making hydrail a less copper-dependent technology for rail transport.
And Thompson believes that salvaging copper from existing electrified corridors may help finance the switch to hydrogen. 'When the first two or three overhead systems have gone hydrail,' Thompson predicts, 'the rest will come down like dominoes.' Slow dominoes, perhaps—but the 140-year lifespan of aging rail infrastructure is looking increasingly hard to justify.
And beyond cost, overhead train power has other drawbacks. Utility engineers aren't fans—ground currents from the lines can interfere with water systems, telecoms, and other underground infrastructure. City planners, too, have long been frustrated. Despite years of effort to bury power lines and telephone cables, railway corridors remain cluttered with conspicuous poles, wires, and metalwork.
People leave the Atocha train station in Madrid after its closure as a massive power outage hits ... More Spain on April 28, 2025. Power went out across all of Spain and Portugal today, cutting cellphone and internet networks, halting trains and trapping people in elevators, officials said. The operator, Red Electrica, said it would likely take six to 10 hours to restore power in the country and urged people not to speculate as to the cause of the outage. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP) (Photo by THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)
Curiously, the story of hydrail's potential to ride out power grid failures begins in the United States. In the early 2000s, the U.S. Congress funded development of the first hydrail locomotive under the George W. Bush administration. Built by BNSF Railways and Vehicle Projects LLC, the train wasn't just intended for freight—it was designed as a self-propelled mobile power plant, capable of supplying emergency electricity to hospitals and other critical infrastructure after natural disasters like hurricanes.
Its tractive power was successfully demonstrated on military bases in the Western U.S., but after the Bush presidency ended, so did government support. The locomotive—BNSF 1205—was scrapped for parts and now sits on display, minus its hydrogen components, at the Oklahoma Railway Museum.
But in 2025, Thompson believes the transition to onboard hydrogen-sourced electric power is inevitable, beginning with lighter equipment and shorter rail lines. As copper prices rise and aging infrastructure reaches the end of its life, the economic case for gridless rail becomes increasingly compelling.
A technology first imagined to keep the lights on during crises may now help avoid them altogether. But only time will tell the extent to which hydrail becomes the new norm beyond its current early use-cases in California, Germany and China. If Spain stays the course, it could be the first to show that hydrail isn't a far-off future. It's already on track.