Romania’s hydrogen trains mark a rail mobility step forward for CEE - Can Latvia learn from it?
Romania’s decision to procure 12 hydrogen-powered passenger trains is one of the clearest rail mobility signals yet coming from Central and Eastern Europe. For Latvia, the case is worth watching not as a copy-paste model, but as a practical example of how hydrogen mobility can start shaping real transport demand, infrastructure planning and wider hydrogen market development.
NEWS
HydrogenLatvia
4/23/20264 min read
Romania has taken a visible step in hydrogen mobility by awarding Siemens Mobility a contract to supply 12 hydrogen fuel cell passenger trains for non-electrified regional routes. The deal, reported at roughly EUR 325 million and structured together with long-term maintenance, is more than a rolling stock order — it is a signal that hydrogen rail is moving from pilots and strategy papers into transport system decisions in Central and Eastern Europe.
Romania moves hydrogen rail from concept to procurement
The Romanian project is built around concrete operating corridors rather than abstract decarbonisation language. The planned services cover non-electrified routes including Bucharest–Pitești, Bucharest–Târgoviște, Bucharest–Henri Coandă Airport, and the Pitești–Curtea de Argeș corridor, with extension logic also reaching toward Piatra Olt and Craiova. That matters, because hydrogen rail only becomes credible when linked to real passenger services, defined route lengths, duty cycles, maintenance structures and refuelling needs.
This order also shows that implementation is rarely linear. Romania’s hydrogen train programme went through repeated tender setbacks, and authorities are now seeking a new financing source after the earlier recovery-plan timing was missed. Even so, the contract award keeps the project alive and underlines a point that many emerging hydrogen markets need to absorb: building a hydrogen economy is not only about technology readiness, but also about procurement discipline, public-sector coordination and financing continuity.
Siemens’ platform gives the project practical credibility
The Romanian order is tied to Siemens Mobility’s Mireo Plus H platform, which is no longer only a prototype story. Siemens reported in late 2024 that the first Mireo Plus H trains had received authorization for passenger operation in Germany, marking the beginning of regular service in Bavaria and Berlin-Brandenburg. Siemens also states that the platform offers up to 1,200 km range on a single hydrogen tank, fast refuelling and performance intended for non-electrified regional services.
That operating maturity matters for CEE markets. Romania is not buying into a purely experimental concept; it is procuring a technology family that has already crossed an important threshold into passenger use. For public authorities and infrastructure planners across the region, that lowers the psychological and institutional barrier around hydrogen rail.
CEE hydrogen rail activity is starting to form a regional pattern
Romania is currently the most visible hydrogen passenger rail case in Central and Eastern Europe, but it is not appearing in isolation. In Poland, the government reported the first scheduled passenger train service using a hydrogen-powered locomotive in September 2025, and in February 2026 confirmed more than PLN 36 million in support for development of the country’s first hydrogen passenger train. In Czechia, the RegioHyt project has been assessing where hydrogen traction could make technical, economic and environmental sense on non-electrified lines.
Taken together, these developments suggest that hydrogen rail in CEE is entering a more structured phase. One market is moving through procurement, another through early operational use and industrial development, and another through corridor-level feasibility assessment. That is how new mobility segments usually form: not through one breakthrough headline, but through a sequence of procurement, piloting, infrastructure learning and policy refinement.
Latvia’s near-term rail pathway is different, but the lessons are still relevant
For Latvia, the immediate railway decarbonisation route is currently battery-electric rather than hydrogen. According to the European Alternative Fuels Observatory, only 13.7% of Latvia’s rail network was electrified in 2024. At the same time, official information on Latvia’s battery-electric multiple unit programme states that passenger services on non-electrified lines are still being provided by 23 diesel trains built between 1980 and 1992, and that nine new battery-electric trains are intended to replace part of that fleet.
That makes Latvia a useful comparison case. It shows that the decarbonisation of non-electrified railways does not have one universal solution. The EAFO notes that electrification tends to make most sense on busy lines, while low-density lines require case-by-case assessment of cost and carbon reduction options. In that context, battery trains, hydrogen trains and selective electrification should be treated as complementary tools rather than competing ideologies.
What Latvia can learn from Romania’s hydrogen train case
The first lesson is that hydrogen mobility becomes more bankable when linked to stable public-service transport demand. Romania’s project is not framed around a vague future market; it is linked to concrete passenger corridors. For Latvia, that principle has wider relevance beyond rail as well — whether the application is public transport, ports, heavy-duty vehicles or airport logistics, hydrogen projects become stronger when anchored in recurring demand rather than one-off demonstrations.
The second lesson is about system design. Romania’s approach brings together trains, maintenance and operational support in one package. That is exactly the kind of value-chain thinking that Baltic hydrogen stakeholders need more of. A hydrogen train is not just rolling stock. It is a demand centre for molecules, refuelling, maintenance capability, safety procedures, workforce readiness and long-term service economics.
The third lesson is more cautious, but equally important: financing structure can decide the fate of otherwise credible projects. Romania’s experience shows that procurement persistence is not enough if the funding timeline slips out of alignment. For Latvia, where many hydrogen projects are still at market-building stage, that is a reminder that project maturity must be developed in parallel with a realistic financing pathway and institutional ownership.
A useful regional reference point for HydrogenLatvia readers
Romania’s hydrogen train order should not be read as proof that hydrogen rail is automatically the right answer everywhere. Latvia is already moving with battery-electric trains on part of its non-electrified network, and that may remain the more logical near-term choice on several corridors. But Romania does offer something highly valuable to the wider Baltic discussion: a concrete CEE example of hydrogen mobility moving into service planning, procurement structure and asset deployment logic.
For Latvian hydrogen ecosystem stakeholders, this is precisely why the development matters. Hydrogen economies do not grow only through large industrial production projects. They also grow when visible mobility use cases begin to define where hydrogen can deliver operational value, where infrastructure can be justified and where policymakers can point to real implementation rather than future ambition. Romania has now given the region one such example. Latvia would be wise to study it closely.
Source: Siemens to deploy 12 new hydrogen-powered trains in Romania