The Sierra Family – Innovators in Motion
Sierra Railroad is a pioneer in the energy, freight, and passenger rail industries. With Sierra Energy, Sierra Northern Railway, and Ventura’s Sunburst Train, we embody the essential spirit of California, our home since the 1800s: bridging history with sustainability, connectivity, innovation, and growth while providing valuable services to California’s businesses and helping craft memorable experiences for its residents and visitors alike.
Sierra Northern Railway provides rail and intermodal freight transportation and transloading across Northern and Central California, serving a wide variety of businesses located in our state’s prime industrial areas and interchanging with both BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad.
The Southern Pacific Railroad constructed the Santa Paula Branch Line in 1887 as a standard-gauge railroad, continuing to use the line until the 1950s to haul citrus from packing houses to communities along the Santa Clara River. The Ventura County Transportation Commission purchased the line from Southern Pacific in 1995 and for many years rented the line to the Fillmore and Western Railway for excursion trains and film shoots. Sierra Northern Railway now provides freight and passenger operations over the line, which is now known as the Ventura Sunburst.
Sierra Energy is committed to a zero-waste future through its development of FastOx® gasification, a technology that turns unwanted trash into clean energy without burning or process emissions. The company continues to advance its technology and test new applications for gasification at its Sierra Energy Research Park in Davis, California and at its commercial demonstration facility in Monterey County, California.