Toyota Won’t Give Up On Hydrogen, Teams Up With Truck Giants
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on TorqueCafe.
This is the sub heading.
Japanese car giant Toyota has signed a non-binding MoU to collaborate with Daimler Truck and Volvo Group on hydrogen fuel cells.
These three paragraphs add more details.
Toyota just won’t let its hydrogen-fuelled dreams die, this week announcing it wants to further develop fuel cell technology with two big players in the heavy vehicle market.
Daimler Truck (makers of Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Western Star and Fuso trucks) and the Volvo Group (responsible for Volvo, Mack and Renault trucks), already have a joint venture, cellcentric, which Toyota has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding to join.
Split between equal shareholding, a joint press release said “the combination of the parties’ complementary experience and know-how will support and advance their joint objective to develop, produce and commercialise fuel cell systems for heavy-duty vehicles and other heavy-duty applications with comparable requirements”.
The rest of the article gives a summary of where Toyota are with hydrogen.
It is worth a thorough read.
Backing hydrogen you have Centrica, Ceres, Cummins, Daimler, Hyundai, JCB, INEOS, Kia, Ryse, Volvo, Wrightbus and a few others.
Will they prevail against a cynical world?
I think it will be one iconic vehicle, that excites the world. I will nominate.
- A 1000 km. range hydrogen-powered coach from Mercedes, Solaris, Volvo or Wrightbus.
- A large American-style pickup from Dodge with a Cummins engine or from Toyota.
- A large American-style truck.
- A remodelling of the iconic London new Routemaster bus with a hydrogen Cummins engine by Wrightbus.
- A small affordable hydrogen hatchback from the French, Toyota or the Koreans, based on a fuel cell and an electric transmission.
When I was a child the icon was a dragline called Big Geordie, who is shown in this video.
I suspect for some of the mining projects in the world today, a hydrogen-powered Big Geordie would make a good fist of it.
Condor Celebrates Inaugural Flight Of New Frankfurt–London Gatwick Route
The title of this post is the same as that of this press release from Condor.
This is the sub-heading.
Condor today launched its new city connection between Frankfurt am Main (FRA) and London Gatwick (LGW). With the inaugural flight, the British capital is now officially part of Condor’s city network. The route will be operated three times daily with a schedule designed to appeal equally to business travellers and city tourists. Flights are operated using Condor’s Airbus A320 aircraft, offering capacity for 180 passengers in a two-class configuration, including Business Class and Economy Class with the standard 3-3 seating layout. In addition, Condor cooperates with partner airlines on this route.
These three paragraphs add more details.
With this new connection, Condor is expanding its city network to include one of Europe’s most important metropolitan hubs, thereby strategically strengthening its presence in the European market. To mark the inaugural flight from London Gatwick, departing passengers on the fully booked service were welcomed with a small reception and gifts before the flight departed punctually for Frankfurt am Main.
David Carlisle, Director Network and Partnerships at Condor, said: “Today’s inaugural flight to London Gatwick marks another important milestone in the expansion of our European route network. London is one of Europe’s most sought-after destinations, both for business travellers and short city breaks. We are delighted to offer our guests up to three daily frequencies, providing maximum flexibility as well as convenient access to our long-haul network to Africa and Asia.”
Jonny Macneal, Head of Aviation Development at London Gatwick, added: “We are delighted to welcome Condor to London Gatwick and to offer our passengers even greater choice with this new, frequently operated service to Frankfurt. Whether travelling for business, leisure or to visit friends and family, the route provides excellent flexibility and connectivity. Condor’s arrival marks another important milestone during a period of significant growth for the airport.”
The press release also has these two last paragraphs, which give more information about the airline.
London is one of Europe’s leading economic and financial centres and also one of the most popular destinations for city travel. The new connection offers business travellers excellent access to the Greater London area as well as flexible options for day trips. Leisure travellers benefit from convenient flight times for weekend getaways.
In addition to the launch of London Gatwick, Condor continues to expand its network. From May, Barcelona, Budapest and Venice will be added as new destinations, bringing the total number of city destinations in the Condor network to 13. With these additions, Condor is further strengthening its presence in high growth markets and continuing to expand its European route network. Flights can be booked online at http://www.condor.com, via telephone or through travel agencies.
It is certainly one of the best-written and information-rich press releases, that I have seen.
If the attention to detail is as good in the way the airline is run is half as good, Condor will be worth giving a try.
This page is their TripAdvisor reviews.
Gatwick Airport Is Expanding
I picked up the news of Condor Airlines new service from one of my Google Alerts about Gatwick Airport’s proposed new runway.
These were the titles of the news articles in the alert.
- Simple Flying – Unbelievable! The UK’s 2nd-Busiest Airport Welcomes 5th New Airline In 11 Days
- MSN – London Gatwick confirms 9th new airline in massive 2026 shakeup
- Aviation A2Z – Condor Begins First UK Route with 3 New Daily Flights to This Airport
- Yahoo News UK – Airline launches first-ever UK route from Gatwick Airport to popular European city
- AviationSource News – Condor Launches New Frankfurt to London Gatwick Route
- Aviation24.be – Condor launches Frankfurt–London Gatwick route with three daily flights, marking UK debut
- Travel Wires – Condor launches first UK route with Gatwick–Frankfurt service
- Travel And Tour World – Frankfurt & London: New Condor Flights Spark Hope and Joy at London Gatwick Airport, UK
There is also this headline about Air France.
- Aviation24.be – Air France returns to London Gatwick with new twice-daily Paris CDG service
Gatwick seems to be doing well to be welcoming nine new airlines in 2026 and five in the last eleven days.
Perhaps, some honest accounting have convinced those nine airlines, that Gatwick’s new runway, won’t raise charges as much as Heathrow’s.
It’s Nearly Ten Years Since I Wrote The Streatham Virtual Tube
In the June 2016 Edition of Modern Railways, there was an article entitled Turning South London Orange.
One of the proposals in the article is to create a virtual tube through Streatham.
So I wrote The Streatham Virtual Tube.
My curiosity has been aroused, as to why the article is one of my top posts.
Does anybody have any ideas?
Or could it just be that someone is promoting the Streatham Virtual Tube In The Local Elections?
TenneT, National Grid Ink Joint Development Agreement For LionLink Offshore Wind Interconnector
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Transmission system operators (TSOs) TenneT and National Grid Ventures (NGV) have signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to advance LionLink, a hybrid interconnector linking the UK and the Netherlands via a future offshore wind farm in the Dutch North Sea.
These three paragraphs add more details.
The agreement sets out how the two partners will jointly develop LionLink towards a final investment decision (FID), including arrangements on procurement, governance, and planning, while also aiming to increase transparency on project costs ahead of construction.
LionLink is designed to integrate cross-border electricity interconnection with offshore wind by establishing a direct connection between the two countries through a grid link to the planned Nederwiek 3 offshore wind farm. According to the developers, this approach will maximise the use of offshore wind, provide additional system flexibility, and reduce the overall amount of required offshore infrastructure.
The LionLink project was launched in April 2023, when the Netherlands and the UK unveiled their plan to build the interconnector, a first-of-its-kind electricity link to connect offshore wind between the two countries via interconnections.
The same article also said these two paragraphs about the operation of the BritNed interconnector.
While the companies move forward with LionLink, their existing BritNed interconnector is marking 15 years of operation. Since entering service in 2011, the 1 GW subsea link has enabled nearly 93 TWh of electricity trading between Great Britain and the Netherlands.
Over the past five years, BritNed has exchanged enough electricity annually to power around 1.4 million households. The 260-kilometre interconnector remains a key part of both countries’ energy systems and has generated around EUR 1 billion in auction revenues on the Dutch side during its operational lifetime, TenneT said in a press release on 1 April.
It looks like BritNed has been a good investment for all stakeholders.
Note.
- LionLink will be a 2 GW interconnector.
- LionLink will land at Walberswick in Suffolk.
- LionLink has a web site.
- BritNed is a 1 GW interconnector.
- BritNed lands at the Isle of Grain in Kent.
- BritNed has a web site.
- NemoLink is an interconnector between Kent and Belgium.
- NeuConnect will be a 1.4 GW interconnector between the Isle of Grain and Wilhelmshaven, which will be operational by 2028.
- There are two actual and two proposed interconnectors between the UK and France.
The List of high-voltage transmission links in the United Kingdom in Wikipedia is growing.
The Wikipedia entry says this about the Rise of UK Interconnection.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Digest of UK Energy Statistics reports that the UK was a net importer of electricity in 2024, with net imports of 33.4 TWh, up 40% from 2023.
Interconnectors allow the trade of electricity between countries with excess generation (for example, intermittent renewable) and those with high demand. Interconnectors play a key part in balancing variable renewable generation, for example the 1.4 GW North Sea Link allows the UK to export excess power to Norway during windy periods to conserve Norwegian hydro stocks, and import Norwegian hydro power on less windy days.
During the 2022 energy crisis, the UK exported record amounts of power to mainland Europe, helping to alleviate the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on European security of supply.
As of 12 November 2024, Great Britain had nine operational international electricity interconnectors.
The UK is becoming an offshore energy substation on Europe’s North-West coast.
The Anonymous Widower 