(Yicai) Aug. 30 -- The first hydrogen tram demonstration line in the world, located in the southern Chinese city of Foshan, has recently suspended services after nearly five years of operations due to few passengers over a long period.

The tram line, with a total investment of CNY838 million (USD118 million), was stopped on Aug. 6, operator Gaoming Modern Rail Transit Construction Investment told Yicai, citing "overhaul of equipment and facilities" as the official reason for the suspension.

"Further evaluation will help determine when the tram will resume operations," according to Gaoming Modern Rail. However, Yicai found that only a few passengers had used the line for a long time during a field investigation.

Single-use tickets for the tram cost CNY2 (28 US cents), while daily passenger numbers fell to just 578 in 2021 from 1,100 the prior year, according to official figures. Based on this, the line's revenue can be estimated to be just CNY550,000 (USD77,480) in 2020, meaning it must run for 1,523 years to recover its investment.

Deemed by local officials as "the world's first commercially operated hydrogen tram," the project was funded by Gaoming Modern Rail and put into operation in December 2019. However, passenger flow was low because it was a short line with few trains and not many residents nearby.

The government of Gaoming district built the tram to attract CRRC Qingdao Sifang, a subsidiary of the state-owned high-speed train giant CRRC, to invest in the district, a person close to the project told Yicai.

CRRC Qingdao Sifang holds a 20 percent stake in Gaoming Modern Rail, which was established in 2016, with Foshan Gaoming Construction Investment Group owning 60 percent and Foshan Metro Group the rest.

The district government also hoped the tram could play a demonstration role and help it build into a pacesetter for the hydrogen energy industry. According to plans released in 2019, it hoped to attract and cultivate 20 leading hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cell companies by 2030 with an annual output value of CNY32 billion (USD4.5 billion).

However, Gaoming district has changed its industrial development focus, with the local government's work report focusing on the new energy vehicle industry and not mentioning hydrogen energy since last year.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev