Almost four weeks after it landed in the state from China, Sarawak’s Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART) Hydrogen Vehicle (H2V) has finally begun its on-road testing in Kuching. This marks yet another significant milestone for the Kuching Urban Transportation System (KUTS) which is expected to begin carrying passengers starting from the fourth quarter of 2025.

Built by CRRC, it is said to be the world’s first hydrogen-powered smart tram and will be going through an engineering run for two months starting on 4 September. The test is taking place on a loop road that covers the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching, Menara Sarawak Energy, Menara SEDC, and Menara LCDA at Kuching Isthmus.

Despite that, the ART H2V has already begun to appear on the said road since yesterday. This is because Sarawak Metro is now calibrating the vehicle’s Virtual Guidance System in preparation for the engineering run session next month.

Once the Kuching Isthmus engineering run session is over, the hydrogen-powered vehicle will then be moved to Kota Samarahan for Proof-of-Concept (POC) testing sometime in November. The POC test session will take place for one month on a pre-determined section of the Kuching Samarahan Expressway.

The 3km stretch has been earmarked to be turned into a dedicated lane for the ART Blue Line route which runs from Rembus in Kota Samarahan up to Hikmah Exchange in Kuching. Unfortunately, members of the public will not be able to take a ride on the ART H2V as this particular unit is actually a prototype.

According to Sarawak Metro, its ART H2V can carry up to 300 passengers at a time and has a maximum speed of 70kmh. Aside from the Blue Line, phase 1 of the KUTS project also includes the Red Line which links Kuching Sentral and Pending.

There is also the Green Line which covers the route between Pending and Damai Central. Both of these routes are scheduled to begin operation starting from 2026 and 2027, respectively.

On a related note, Sarawak is actively pushing hydrogen as a viable renewable energy source. Even the Premier Abang Jo is now driving a hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai. — SoyaCincau

by malaymail