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9/24/2026
Union Pacific Railroad has taken delivery of two new Wabtec Corp. battery-electric locomotives for testing in Southern California as part of the Class I's investments in testing new technologies in real-world operating environments.
The two units will undergo extensive testing in a variety of railroad operations, including switching and local customer service. Their use in a busy rail yard will provide the railroad valuable data on the technology's performance, reliability and operational capabilities, UP officials said in a press release.
The locomotives are the first of four FLXdrive battery-electric units built by Wabtec that UP has ordered. The remaining two locomotives are scheduled to arrive next month, UP officials said. The fleet will operate in the greater Los Angeles area.
FLXdrive locomotives are powered by about 7,000 battery cells. Each locomotive provides about 2.7 megawatt-hours of energy storage and produces zero tailpipe emissions during operations.
Rail is the most fuel efficient way to move freight over land, and UP's testing of battery-electric locomotives builds on its ongoing investment in modernizing operations, improving efficiency and advancing technologies that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said UP officials.