Advancement of Hydrogen and Battery Locomotive Technical Specifications

Transport Canada (TC) is looking to engage in work with a supplier to advance and support standards development in consultation with stakeholders for hydrogen and battery locomotives specific to the North American (i.e. US and Canada) context, for the ultimate purpose of establishing safe and up to date design requirements and functional requirements for these technologies. The anticipated end product of this work would be to develop a National Standard of Canada (NSC) (i.e. accreditation from the SCC) to:

i. Establish the framework and baseline requirements for safe design and operation for onboard lithium-ion traction batteries for railway applications in North America, including retrofit and new build units.

ii. Establish the framework and baseline requirements for safe design and operation for hydrogen fuel cell powered rolling stock in North America, including retrofit and new build units.

The path to developing an NSC would include the development of a National Technical Specification (TS), which would be peer-reviewed by a technical committee comprised of selected subject matter experts and interested parties, under the direction of a supplier which has sufficient understanding of the subject matter to oversee the process. Safeguards are maintained by leveraging best practices and a sound project approval process involving technical experts using a consensus-based approach. It is expected that the TS would be developed based on up-to-date research, real world testing results, and informed by the standards development activities of groups such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the American Association of Railroads (AAR), and the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). Through consultation with industry experts, the NSC developed from the TS may be a standalone document, or it may use existing international standards (IEC, ISO, etc) to create a North American deviation NSC.