Why Do University Professors Get it all Wrong?
I shake my head in utter despair, when academics, get it all wrong.
Zwei, probably knows more about Karlsruhe’s Zweisystem or TramTrain than most in BC and or Canada. Karlsruhe’s famous TramTrains are powered by electricity, delivered from an overhead supply. What Karlsruhe’s Zweisystem Trains are famous for is the ability to operate on the railway mainline, as well as on tram or streetcar tracks in the city.
In operations since 1992, Karslsruhe’s TramTrain system has been built on success after success as evidenced by massive ridership increases.

Hydrogen powered trains are still in their developmental stage and despite one sided reporting in the media and/or environmental groups, there is still a lot of expensive bugs to work out.
Zwei has been told that all the routes using hydrogen powered trains, operate on lines with little or no grades as the hydrogen powered trains still have many issues dealing with gradients.
A lesson for the good professor, Karlsruhe’s success story is the TramTrain or Zweisystem and the ability to use streetcar/tram tracks and operate on the mainline railways; not hydrogen powered trains.
A basic cost (my estimation) for a light Diesel Multiple Unit Service from Salmon Arm to Kelowna, using the former CNR Railway R-o-W, would be in the neighbourhood of $2 billion, for a service with a maximum three trains per hour per direction.
Photo: A Karlsruhe TramTrain on a country route, operating on a mainline railway.

The German term Zweisystem, refers to the fact that the trains can operate under two different power supplies as used by the DBB or federal railways and by the city tram system.
Environment & Sustainability, Research
UBCO professor researches electric passenger light rail for Okanagan Valley
Feasibility plan introduces 342-kilometre route linking Kamloops and Osoyoos
July 10, 2024
A conceptional illustration of the Okanagan Valley Electric Regional Passenger Rail shows the tram running alongside Okanagan Lake. Photo credit: Andrew Halfhide.
Anyone who has ever been stuck in gridlock while driving over Kelowna’s William R. Bennett Bridge or any Okanagan community can appreciate the thought that there has to be a better alternative than Highway 97 to navigate the busy corridor.
And a UBC Okanagan professor says there is.
Dr. Gordon Lovegrove, who teaches in UBCO’s School of Engineering, has studied the feasibility of an affordable passenger train patterned after a similar concept started in Karlsruhe, Germany 40 years ago.
“Hydrail tram-trains—powered by a hydrogen fuel cell/battery—is a passenger rail that acts like a tram in cities and like a train between communities. This is a new concept to North America,” explains Dr. Lovegrove. “They are self-powered, low-floor and a zero-emission technology, which differs from typical heavy-rail, high-floor, locomotive-pulled passenger cars. This gives hydrail the advantage of being able to climb hills and more affordable than highway widening.”
Dr. Lovegrove says the Okanagan’s booming tourism and population growth affect the more than 500,000 residents in communities connected mainly by Highway 97. The majority of travel is by cars, which increases the highway’s gridlock and risk of collisions. He cites recent surveys of residents, First Nations communities and businesses, coupled with joint municipal and provincial government studies that reveal the Okanagan Valley needs more than traditional auto-oriented solutions such as road widening and bypasses—options he calls ineffective and costly.
That opened the door for the researchers to study the technical and economic feasibility of an Okanagan Valley Electric Regional Passenger Rail (OVER PR) service. The study, published recently in the journal Sustainability, is the first of its kind in North America and one of the first published worldwide.
“To address growing inter-city transportation, safety, congestion and climate resilience challenges in the Okanagan Valley, we found that even in our Canadian climate and hilly terrain, hydrail tram-trains are technically feasible. And they would be more affordable than widening our highways and promoting more pollution and congestion. However, it is up to communities to decide if and where it would run.”
Dr. Lovegrove notes he deliberately analyzed the undulating Highway 97 route with its steep hills, as opposed to conventional near-flat freight routes, as the toughest test of its feasibility.
Assuming Highway 97 was chosen, OVER PR would connect cities and airports throughout the valley with a one-way trip from Osoyoos to Kamloops taking about four hours, comparable to driving a car. The tram-train could travel at higher speeds, about 90 k/h between cities, but at lower tram-specific speeds in cities, with modern transit priority signals designed to bypass delays at intersections.
“Using embedded rails, sharing existing and HOV lanes as well as highway rights-of-way, or medians, between cities, would drastically reduce the need for land acquisition without taking away capacity. The route would also be designed to integrate with regional bus services to construct an optimal arrival and departure schedule,” he says.
With OVER PR ridership expected to be more than 13,000 passengers per day, there is something in it for even those who could not make the jump from driving to using the tram-train, as it would mean less traffic congestion and travel delays.
“Hydrail combined with tram-train technology has never been tried in Canada, yet hydrogen trains present advantages compared with electrification by eliminating the requirement for expensive infrastructure such as catenaries (above ground wires) and substations. It also grants the flexibility to operate in remote rural areas or difficult terrain where electrification might pose challenges, which improves its overall effectiveness and adaptability. When hydrogen production is coupled with other forms of renewable energy generation, the environmental benefits are favourable.”
The study states the system, similar to ones that operate in California’s Napa Valley or the Karlsruhe region in Germany, can have economic, social and ecological benefits for tourists and residents.
Dr. Lovegrove’s research suggests that over 30 years, and using the same cost-benefit analysis template used by provincial policy analysts, OVER PR benefits total more than $45 billion, and outweigh its capital and operating costs by nine to one, with many more benefits than widening Highway 97.
“The Okanagan Valley is expected to continue with significant population growth, tourism and traffic congestion which leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions, as well as more vehicles and highway fatalities,” Dr. Lovegrove says. “If communities agree to proceed with OVER PR planning this valley-long zero-emission, passenger rail service could significantly enhance transport equity, safety and congestion while also providing a more affordable, resilient and environmentally friendly choice for valley residents, businesses and tourists.”
It’s like when they use Light Rail Transit as a descriptor but what they really end up building is essentially a Light Metro. Kuala Lumpur’s Skytrain clone, often refered to as Light Rail Transit or Montreal’s new Light Rail system, “The REM”, which uses shorter versions of Sydney’s Metro Trains and nowhere is there a light rail vehicle in sight. The REM in really, functionally, is a Light Metro . Just grin and bare through it. Yes, what there proposing isn’t a Tram-Train but in reality a Region Railway using specialized Electric Multiple Units (essentially passenger cars with electric motors).
My big thing recently is the frankly overuse of battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell technology in place of overhead catenary systems and wires. What is plainly obvious and nobody wants to admit it that, battery electric technology and fuel cell technology just isn’t ready yet, it needs 10 to 15 more years of development. It’s way too expensive for what it does. Battery electric trains and buses are double the price of their diesel brethren and with battery technology you have to by 33% more vehicles because so much of your fleet is charging at anyone time.
Hydrogen fuel cells work but you have to carry hydrogen in tanks everywhere you go. Keep in mind the Hindenburg or the Space Shuttle Challenger were hydrogen powered vehicles.
Thankfully crystallized hydrogen has been taken off the US military’s banned or secret technology list, so it can be used in commercial situations. This is where a form of hydrogen in a crystalline form is coated onto plates, like battery core plates and doesn’t have to be in a very dangerous pressurized gas form. When your hydrogen is used up, you just replace the old plates wI th new ones. However, it still essentially a battery based system with its big current limitations which effects the amount horsepower you produce. Unfortunately, its still rare, expensive and early in its development.
The advantage of overhead wires is they can constantly dump large amounts of current at constant voltages thus greatly out ranging and completely out-powering (I’m talking about shear horsepower here) anything battery based. With electric flywheels you can use your forward motion to regenerate electric power as the train moves, actually returning power to the grid through the train’s pantograph. Many LRT and Streetcar systems use this technology to reduce power use.
Your part of the world never ceases to amaze me and your post clearly shows that your education system is duly lacking.
If this what passes for Canadian Engineering Standards, remind us to never hire a Canadian Engineering firm!
Everything stated by the author, who claims to be an Engineering professor at a local university is just pure nonsense.
Currently there is no hydrail TramTrains, instead there is hydrogen powered EMU’s in operation but they are experimental, as are hydrogen powered trams, all in the experimental stage and certainly not in general production.
These trains come with very large and very heavy batteries, which cause operational problems and the vehicles are definitely not light.
Again, after 25 years nothing has changed in your part of the world and it still remains having lunatics in charge.