{"id":9492,"date":"2021-05-02T17:14:13","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T17:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=9492"},"modified":"2021-05-02T17:03:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T17:03:23","slug":"from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion","title":{"rendered":"From coal to hydrogen: An old mode of transport that\u2019s back in fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>In the early twentieth century rail was a dirty business, burning coal and competing with other transport on the basis of speed, price and luxury. Pollution wasn\u2019t a factor.<\/p>\n

French train builder Alstom produced steam engines in the 1920s and in due course replaced them with diesel. As train travel faced stiffer competition from cars and cheap air travel, Alstom diversified into energy and ship-building.<\/p>\n

Today, trains are enjoying a revival. Travellers appreciate their comfort and speed. The industry promises to be more profitable. But that\u2019s only half the story.<\/p>\n

Nicholette MacDonald-Brown, Head of European Blend Equities, explains: \u201cAlstom is a business that\u2019s changed its spots. It sold its troubled energy business in 2015 and has settled down as a focused railway business. Today it looks set to benefit from plans to promote rail as a sustainable and safe mode of transport. There are two strands to this positive. One is that train technology is itself becoming far cleaner and more efficient. But the other part of the story is that more people and more freight are finding their way onto railways instead of using dirtier and more costly alternative transports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall demand for the shipment of people and goods globally is expected to rocket in the coming decades. Train travel will benefit. And tracks are being laid at breakneck speed to meet that demand. In China, more high-speed railways were built in a decade than exist in the whole of western Europe. New lines are being laid in Africa and the US, too.<\/p>\n

Nicholette says: \u201cRail has the lowest carbon footprint amongst all major means of transport \u2013 rail travel has only an eighth of the carbon footprint of air travel and a third of road. As governments and companies live up to their emission-reduction targets, rail should benefit.<\/p>\n

She continues: \u201cSurprisingly, even airlines are encouraging customers to shift some of their travel to rail. KLM for example announced in 2019 that it wanted to encourage passengers to \u2018make responsible decisions about flying\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technology has been advancing too. Alstom has developed hydrogen-powered trains, which release only water as exhaust. They are already operating in Germany and other countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlstom\u2019s Coradia iLint, the world\u2019s first hydrogen powered train, can run for 600 miles on a single tank,\u201d Nicholette says. \u201cIn the face of the climate crisis, demand for decarbonisation across transport is rapidly accelerating. Alstom is in a good place to benefit financially as these trends grow. And the environment benefits too.\u201d<\/p>\n

PERSONAL FINANCE<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. In the early twentieth century rail was a dirty business, burning coal and competing with other transport on the basis of speed, price and luxury. Pollution wasn\u2019t a factor. French train builder Alstom produced steam engines in the 1920s and in due course replaced them with diesel. As train travel faced stiffer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-9492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom coal to hydrogen: An old mode of transport that\u2019s back in fashion - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the early twentieth century rail was a dirty business, burning coal and competing with other transport on the basis o ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From coal to hydrogen: An old mode of transport that\u2019s back in fashion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the early twentieth century rail was a dirty business, burning coal and competing with other transport on the basis o ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-02T17:14:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/05\/img-608edb418632c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"From coal to hydrogen: An old mode of transport that\u2019s back in fashion\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-02T17:14:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion\"},\"wordCount\":432,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/05\/img-608edb418632c.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/from-coal-to-hydrogen-an-old-mode-of-transport-thats-back-in-fashion\",\"name\":\"From coal to hydrogen: An old mode of transport that\u2019s back in fashion - 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