There are two main factors influencing the accuracy and reliability of single-ended traveling wave fault location, namely the determination of traveling wave velocity and the time when the reflected wave fronts arrives. A new fault location method based on the travelling wave’s time- and frequency-characteristics combining with natural frequency is presented. It uses method based on natural frequency to calculate rough value of fault distance, and the time regions of reflected waves from fault point to detective bus are confirmed through the distance. Ensemble empirical mode decomposition is employed to extract the high-frequency component from traveling wave, recognize the reflected wave fronts and determine more accurate traveling wave time parameters. According to the propagation velocity of the frequency, the fault distance is calculated. The results of simulations by PSCAD show that the method proposed can effectively identify the initial traveling wave and improves the fault location accuracy obviously.