Since April 19, 2022, Klaes has been responsible for customer management and thus the sales activities of the internationally active rail vehicle manufacturer in the region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, i.e. DACH. The personnel change is part of the reorganisation of the group after the takeover of Bombardier Transportation at the beginning of 2021. Since then, the DACH countries have formed their own regional cluster within the group of companies with around 11,000 employees.
In his new role, Klaes reports to Müslüm Yakisan, President of the Alstom Region DACH. “I’m really looking forward to working together and would like to extend a warm welcome to Christoph Klaes,” emphasises Müslüm Yakisan, President of Alstom’s DACH region. “With Christoph Klaes we are gaining an outstanding and experienced specialist in the field of rail vehicles. Not only does he have specialist expertise in local transport, for which he was responsible in his last position, he also has relevant experience in long-distance transport, which he will bring to our organization.”
Christoph Klaes is an experienced rail veteran
Klaes is considered a seasoned veteran in the rail industry. He has already worked for Deutsche Waggonbau and its successor company Bombardier Transportation as well as Siemens and most recently Stadler for 17 years.
So it goes without saying that the new Head of Customer Management Alstom DACH Christoph Klaes feels at home at Alstom: “You can say that with the step to Alstom I have now come full circle again. I am enthusiastic about the opportunities and the potential that the company has not only in the DACH region, but also internationally. The market opportunities for the new Alstom with alternative drives, digital solutions and last but not least in the service area are unparalleled. I look forward to the challenges and will do my part to leverage all of this potential.”
Meanwhile, in Alstom’s home country France, a promisingly important partnership with the energy company Engie was established. On April 6, 2022, Alstom signed an agreement on hydrogen with the partner. The company is thus continuing to implement its strategic plan “Alstom in Motion 2025” and its hydrogen strategy. This began in 2013 with the development of the Coradia iLint train and was completed in 2021 with the acquisition of fuel cell manufacturer Helion Hydrogen Power.
In addition, the new cooperation fits into a series of other agreements – with Plastic Omnium for tanks, Hynamics for infrastructure or Liebherr for fuel cells. Specifically, the agreement aims to implement renewable hydrogen logistics and refueling solutions for a fuel cell system capable of powering electric locomotives on non-electrified sections of the network. The focus is primarily on freight locomotives.
“Our goal is to accelerate the adoption of hydrogen in the rail industry and to develop innovative solutions for the greening of heavy mobility, including rail freight,” explains Raphaël Bernardelli, Vice President, Business Strategy at Alstom. “In order to develop the hydrogen sector, all actors in this sector must be mobilised. That is the purpose of our partnership with ENGIE.”
Alstom-ENGIE – strategic partnership for hydrogen
Under the new partnership, Alstom will develop a high-performance hydrogen fuel cell system capable of powering such locomotives, while Engie will need to supply the renewable hydrogen for this solution through an innovative supply chain. “With more than 200 experts dedicated exclusively to hydrogen, we are a long-term partner for our customers, securing every phase of their project, from planning to operation of multi-GW projects,” says Engie. The target market is the large European rail freight transport countries.
The cooperation already proved its worth in March 2020 in the Dutch province of Groningen during presentation runs of the Coradia iLint hydrogen passenger train. For Engie, this partnership is part of a more global plan to ensure four gigawatts of renewable hydrogen production capacity by 2030, particularly for heavy mobility markets.
“Having successfully supplied the Coradia iLint during testing in the Netherlands in 2020, we are delighted to continue with Alstom in accelerating the decarbonisation of the heavy mobility market by augmenting our respective expertise ments to serve European rail freight transport. This partnership marks a new milestone in the development of renewable hydrogen solutions and building a zero-carbon economy,” says Sébastien Arbola, Deputy CEO of ENGIE, responsible for the activities in the fields of heat production, hydrogen and energy supply.
Alstom UK: First 600 class hydrogen train
In Great Britain, too, Alstom is one step ahead when it comes to hydrogen. In the future, all trains with alternative drive types will run there under the 6xx classification. And this new class of train has been specially developed for Alstom’s Breeze train, the UK’s first hydrogen train. The first vehicles of this series are scheduled to go into service in 2024. The owner and financier is the British railway company Eversholt’s Rail.
The train, called ‘Breeze’, is a conversion of the existing Class 321 trains, one of the UK’s most reliable trains, now set to become a clean train for the modern age. The conversion of the trains is being carried out by Alstom in close cooperation with Eversholt’s Rail. Both companies have a business relationship of more than 15 years across the most diverse rail vehicle fleets. According to the partners, this proven, reliable class 321 is ideally suited for conversion to a hydrogen multiple unit (HMU) due to its characteristics, fleet size and availability. The Alstom Transport Technology Center in Widnes will carry out the conversion of the Breeze trains, creating over 200 highly qualified engineering jobs in this new, emerging sector in the North West of England.
Conversion is good, new vehicle is better: According to this motto, Alstom and Everholt’s Rail also announced in mid-November 2021 that they would order and build ten completely new three-part HMUs. Alstom will design and build the trains at its UK facility based on the Alstom Aventra platform.
Hermann Schmidtendorf, Editor-in-Chief /al/en
