Sierra Northern Railway Receives Civic Leadership Award

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sierra Northern Railway (SERA) today received the West Sacramento Civic Leadership Award for Progress for its recent success in developing the first four-axle hydrogen-fueled zero-emission switching locomotive. The award was presented by West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero at the annual West Sacramento State of the City event.

The Civic Leadership Award for Progress recognizes those who continue to make West Sacramento, year after year, a great place to live, work, and play.

Sierra Northern, based in West Sacramento, on April 8, 2025, received industrywide attention when the company announced that it had successfully completed testing in West Sacramento of the first four-axle zero-emission hydrogen-fueled switching locomotive. That successful test puts hydrogen-fueled locomotives within realistic commercial reach for the short line industry in California and around the world.

"We're very excited about the cutting-edge work Sierra Northern Railway is doing in West Sacramento that will provide huge benefits to our own community, and many others throughout California and elsewhere," said Mayor Guerrero. "Sierra Northern is the type of company we want here, and we look forward to supporting its continued efforts."

Expanded use of hydrogen-fueled switching locomotives will help improve local air quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, noise, and odors for communities where short lines operate. Most switcher locomotives in California use an average of approximately 50,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year, potentially leading to an annual statewide reduction of more than 12 million gallons, about the same amount of fuel used each year by 20,000 light-duty vehicles.

"We're extremely pleased to have our hard work on the hydrogen-fueled switching locomotive recognized by the City of West Sacramento," said Ken Beard, CEO of Sierra Northern. "It's nice to know we have strong local backing as we push to dramatically expand the use of this environmentally beneficial technology that we believe will fundamentally change our industry for the better."

Sierra Northern's hydrogen-fueled switching locomotive project was funded through a $4 million grant from the California Energy Commission and administered through GTI Energy. Other funding partners include the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, SoCalGas, and the Low-Carbon Resources Initiative. Other project partners include Velocity Strategies, Railpower Tech, WHA International, Inc., OptiFuel Systems, Ballard Power Systems, UC Riverside, and Valley Vision.

Sierra Northern has started the process to assemble and test three additional hydrogen-fueled switching locomotives in West Sacramento with funding from the California State Transportation Agency. That project will be administered through the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District with technical leadership from Railpower, Inc. When the CalSTA project is completed in late 2027, it will expand Sierra Northern's hydrogen-fueled switching locomotive fleet to four and pave the way for the company to eventually convert its entire fleet of 40 switchers, and potentially all 260 switchers estimated to be in use statewide.

Sierra Northern Railway (https://www.sierranorthern.com) is the freight division of privately owned Sierra Railroad Company, which also is the principal owner of Sierra Energy Corporation that has developed a proprietary waste-to-clean hydrogen technology: FastOx^® gasification. Sierra Northern Railway currently operates approximately 75 miles of track in Northern California and 30 miles of track in Southern California, including through several prime industrial areas, and serves a wide variety of customers while interchanging with BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad.

SOURCE Sierra Energy Corporation