FASTECH Wins World's Largest Hydrogen Bus Station Contract

FASTECH and Bosch Rexroth have been awarded a contract by the San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) to design, build, and commission what is expected to be the world's largest hydrogen refueling station dedicated to transit bus operations. Located in San Mateo County, California, the facility will fuel a fleet of up to 175 fuel cell electric buses and deliver up to 3.5 tons of hydrogen per day.

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What Makes This Station Different from Existing Hydrogen Facilities?

This is not a larger version of a conventional hydrogen station. It is the first commercial deployment of a technology that fundamentally changes how liquid hydrogen gets handled at transit scale.

The station centers on Bosch Rexroth's CryoPump system. The system eliminates the need for buffer gas storage and complex mechanical valve manifolding. It also nearly eliminates hydrogen losses from boiloff and venting during refueling operations, two of the biggest efficiency and cost challenges at existing hydrogen fueling sites.

With a dispensing rate of up to 1,200 kilograms of hydrogen per hour, the facility is built to grow beyond its initial 175-bus mandate. That built-in capacity matters as SamTrans continues expanding its zero-emission bus fleet toward its 2040 goal.

How Does Bosch Rexroth's CryoPump Technology Work?

The CryoPump is an electrohydraulically driven compression system. It handles liquid hydrogen directly, without the intermediate storage steps that add cost and complexity at conventional stations.

Traditional hydrogen fueling setups rely on buffer gas storage tanks and mechanical valve manifolds to control pressure and flow. Those components increase capital costs and maintenance burden. They also create conditions where hydrogen boils off into gas during transfers, wasting fuel and reducing throughput.

The CryoPump removes those bottlenecks. It compresses liquid hydrogen directly to dispensing pressure, reducing dead volume and cutting energy losses. Bosch Rexroth's published specifications for the CryoPump line indicate the system is rated for up to 4,000 operating hours between maintenance intervals, well above conventional alternatives.

FASTECH, a California-based company specializing in advanced fueling infrastructure for heavy-duty transportation, is responsible for system integration and full station delivery. The SamTrans project represents the CryoPump's first-ever commercial deployment anywhere in the world.

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Station Metric	SamTrans / FASTECH Station	Significance
Fleet capacity	Up to 175 fuel cell electric buses	Expected largest transit bus hydrogen station in the world
Daily hydrogen output	Up to 3.5 tons per day	Supports full-fleet operations across multiple shifts
Dispensing rate	Up to 1,200 kg/hour	Built-in headroom for future fleet expansion
Number of dispensers	Four simultaneous fueling points	Reduces turnaround time across the full fleet
Core technology	Bosch Rexroth CryoPump (first commercial deployment)	Eliminates buffer storage and minimizes boiloff losses

Why Is SamTrans Building a Fleet of Up to 175 Hydrogen Buses?

SamTrans serves more than 10 million riders annually across San Mateo County. The agency operates 74 fixed bus routes and an on-demand transit service, with connections extending to San Francisco and Palo Alto. California's Air Resources Board (CARB) Innovative Clean Transit (ICT) regulation requires transit agencies to transition their entire bus fleets to 100% zero-emission vehicles by 2040. SamTrans is moving aggressively to meet that target. In 2024, the agency placed an order with New Flyer for 108 hydrogen fuel cell Xcelsior CHARGE FC 40-foot buses, the largest single fuel cell bus contract in New Flyer's history. That order was funded through Federal Transit Administration grants, California's Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) vouchers, and local funds. The station FASTECH and Bosch Rexroth are building is designed to grow with that fleet. Delivering 3.5 tons of hydrogen per day through four simultaneous dispensers, it gives SamTrans the fueling infrastructure to operate up to 175 hydrogen fuel cell buses reliably at scale.

How Does This Station Advance California's Clean Transit Goals?

California has established some of the most ambitious zero-emission transit mandates in the world. The CARB ICT regulation sets a hard deadline: all transit buses must be zero-emission by 2040. Heavy-duty hydrogen infrastructure at scale is one of the key enablers for agencies operating large fleets on long routes. The SamTrans station is purpose-built for that mission. It is not a retail hydrogen station adapted for transit use. It is a dedicated, high-throughput facility designed from the ground up to fuel a fleet of up to 175 buses, day after day, with the reliability a public transit agency requires. The Center for Transportation and the Environment is providing independent technical support and third-party assessment throughout the project. CTE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a track record in deploying clean transportation technologies across the U.S. Its involvement adds a layer of credibility and independent verification to the project's technical execution. If the CryoPump performs as specified at this scale, the SamTrans station becomes a replicable blueprint. Other California transit agencies and fleets across North America working toward similar zero-emission mandates will have a proven, commercially deployed model to reference.

What Does This Project Signal for Hydrogen in Heavy-Duty Transit?

Transit agencies worldwide are evaluating hydrogen fuel cell buses as they phase out diesel fleets. The SamTrans project gives the industry a concrete proof point: a station engineered for 175 buses, deploying next-generation compression technology, and cutting the two biggest cost drivers in liquid hydrogen fueling.

Bosch Rexroth is a global supplier of drive and control technologies operating across more than 80 countries. The company developed the CryoPump in partnership with hydrogen industry leaders in the U.S., with the explicit goal of addressing boiloff, reliability, and scalability gaps that have held back liquid hydrogen infrastructure deployment. The SamTrans contract is the commercial validation that work has been building toward.

The station will deliver 3.5 tons of hydrogen per day to up to 175 zero-emission buses serving more than 10 million SamTrans riders annually. That combination of scale, first-of-its-kind technology, and real-world transit deployment makes this one of the most significant hydrogen infrastructure milestones in North America in 2026.

San Mateo County is set to host the most capable hydrogen transit bus station ever built. With 3.5 tons of daily hydrogen output, a dispensing rate of 1,200 kilograms per hour, and the first commercial CryoPump deployment at its core, this contract marks a clear step forward for hydrogen in public transportation.

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