 | |
| Industry | Rail transport |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Henry Posner III |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Website | www.rrdc.com |
The Railroad Development Corporation is an American railroad holding company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It operates several short line railroads outside the United States and acts as an investor, with management and institutional investors as partners. It was founded in 1987 by former Conrail employee Henry Posner III.
RDC participated in the ownership of two rail lines in Argentina: [1]
In August 2012 Ferrocarril del Pacífico that RDC has a shareholding in, resumed operations on the Buenaventura to Yumbo section of the Pacific line. [2] [3]
RDC managed the previously closed 914 mm (3 ft) gauge Ferrovias Guatemala (FVG) under a 50-year concession from 1997. [4] In August 2006, the government of Guatemala invalidated a 2003 contract for the usufruct of rolling stock and other equipment. [5] Due to the continuing uncertainty leading to losses, FVG suspended all operations on October 1, 2007 while continuing with legal actions against the Guatemalan government. [6] [7] The legal action was settled in RDC's favor in December 2013. [8] [9]
In July 1999 the Peruvian government awarded a consortium led by RDC a 30-year concession to operate the former Ferrocarril del Centro. Investors in Ferrocarril Central Andino (FCCA) included RDC, Juan Olaechea & Company, Minas Buenaventura, Cementos Andino, Mitsui and the Commonwealth Development Corporation. [1] [10] It was agreed in June 2006 by the Peruvian government that FCCA should go ahead with converting the Ferrocarril Huancayo - Huancavelica from 3 ft (914 mm) to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge). Estimated to take 16 months, the US$33m project was to be funded jointly by the government and CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. [11] [12] This project was finished by October 2010. [13]
RDC operates the Iowa Interstate Railroad. [1] RDC first invested in the railroad in 1991, exercising an option to purchase in January 2004. [14] [15]
In November 2008, RDC entered a joint venture with LeGrand America to operate a business class road coach service from Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. [16] It ceased in July 2009. [17] [18]
In December of 2022, RDC became part of a $16 million proposal by SEPTA and Chester County in southeastern Pennsylvania to connect the borough of West Chester to Delaware County on a line that hasn't seen service since 1986. The proposal would provide a Metro line using rechargeable, battery-driven light rail service based on Class 230 trains built from recycled London Underground cars with a 60-mile range. [19]
In January 2015, RDC purchased a 25% shareholding in Eurorail. [20] [21]
RDC purchased a 5% shareholding in Eesti Raudtee on August 31, 2001, selling it on January 9, 2007. [22] [23] [24] [25]
In 2009 Réseau Ferré de France, Caisse des dépôts et consignations and RDC formed a joint venture to promote local freight. [26]
Hamburg-Köln-Express (HKX) was founded as a joint venture in November 2009 between RDC (75%), Locomore (17.5%) and railway investor Michael Schabas (7.5%). [27] Services were initially planned to start in August 2010 but this was postponed after the paths it had identified for its services were claimed by Keolis for a proposed Mulhouse to Hamburg open-access service. Keolis later abandoned its plans and HKX was able to reapply for the paths. [28] Operations commenced on July 23, 2012. [29] [30]
In December 2015, RDC-owned HKX stopped operating the Hamburg-Köln-Express, the operation was then carried out by the independent rail tourism company BahnTouristikExpress (BTE). Following 2016 reports that the German motorail operator DB Fernverkehr was about to terminate all motorail services in Germany by October 2016, RDC purchased a 50% share in BTE as the company had a number of car-carrier wagons in stock. [31] Following the purchase, on 18 October 2016, RDC commenced operating RDC Autozug Sylt car shuttle services from Niebüll to Westerland after securing a 10-year access agreement. Services were initially hauled by a Transdev Class 251 while using BTE car-carrier wagons. [32] [33] BTE in December 2016 started operating the BTE AutoReiseZug motorail service between Hamburg and Lörrach. [34]
In October 2017, BTE and therefore RDC terminated the Hamburg-Köln-Express service without further notice. The service of the former Hamburg-Köln-Express was then restarted in March 2018 on the same route by the company Flixmobility under the brand name Flixtrain, but again with BTE as the train operator. The brand name HKX was replaced by the green Flixtrain label. In November 2017, RDC bought two Siemens Vectron diesel locomotives for its RDC Autozug Sylt car shuttle operations. [35]
In 2018 and 2019, BTE is also offering the seasonal night train Alpen Express (winter) between the Netherlands and Austria in cooperation with the Dutch agency Treinreiswinkel. In 2020, RDC started operating the seasonal night train Alpen-Sylt Nachtexpress between the island of Sylt and Salzburg, Austria. [36] In 2021, its operation will also include southwestern Germany with Konstanz as destination by dividing southbound trains in Gemünden. [37]
In January 2021, RDC Autozug Sylt was awarded the contract to operate the Akkunetz Nord regional train network in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, beginning in December 2023. [38] The rolling stock, battery-electric Stadler Flirt Akku trains, was to be provided by the tendering authority. [39] The network was to comprise the following train services:
In January 2022, the contract was terminated after legal action by incumbent DB Regio. Instead of RDC, Nordbahn was awarded the contract. [40]
RDC was a shareholder in Vivarail, a now-defunct [41] company that converted London Underground D78 Stock electric multiple units into Class 230 diesel multiple units. [42]
From December 2021, the nightjet service from Zürich via Cologne to Amsterdam, operated jointly by ÖBB, SBB and NS will be operated using sleeper and couchette coaches leased from RDC Asset GmbH. This will last, until new nightjet coaches have been constructed. [43] [44]
In August 2021, Swedish rail company SJ announced it had been selected by the Swedish Transport Administration to operate a new EuroNight service from Stockholm via Copenhagen to Hamburg from mid-2022. The train will be operated jointly with Danish railways DSB and RDC, with the latter providing the rolling stock, crew, as well as operating the train within Germany. [45]
Through the Central East African Railways consortium, RDC operated the Malawi Railways network which connects with the Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique line in Mozambique from December 1999. [46] [47] The operation was sold in 2008. [1] [48] [49]
Mexico has a freight railway system owned by the national government and operated by various entities under concessions (charters) granted by the national government. The railway system provides freight and passenger service throughout the country, connecting major industrial centers with ports and with rail connections at the United States border. Passenger rail services were limited to a number of tourist trains between 1997, when Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México suspended service, and 2008, when Ferrocarril Suburbano de la Zona Metropolitana de México inaugurated Mexico's first commuter rail service between Mexico City and the State of Mexico. This is not including the Mexico City Metro, which started service in 1969.
Rail transport in Peru has a varied history. Peruvian rail transport has never formed a true network, primarily comprising separate lines running inland from the coast and built according to freight need rather than passenger need.
Transdev Germany is the largest private operator of passenger buses and trains in Germany. It is a subsidiary of Transdev.
Guatemala has a network of 914 mm narrow gauge railroads, passenger and freight trains currently run.
Ferrocarril Central Andino (FCCA) is the consortium which operates the Ferrovías Central railway in Peru linking the Pacific port of Callao and the capital Lima with Huancayo and Cerro de Pasco. As one of the Trans-Andean Railways it is the second highest in the world constructed by the Polish engineer Ernest Malinowski in 1871–1876.
City Night Line, abbreviated CNL, was a train category of German railway company Deutsche Bahn for overnight passenger train services between Germany and neighbouring European countries. In late 2015, Deutsche Bahn announced that it planned to terminate all night train services in December 2016, and this plan was implemented on 11 December 2016. The service on some CNL routes was replaced by ÖBB Nightjet services.
Rail transport in Central America consists of several isolated railroad lines with freight or passenger service. The most famous one is the Panama Canal Railway, the oldest transcontinental railroad in the world, connecting Panama City with Colón since 1855. Other railroads in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama were built by private and public investors mainly to facilitate the transport of local agricultural produce to export markets and harbors. Their market share and profitability went into decline in the second half of the twentieth century and most lines have been decommissioned by the end of the 1990s. As of 2018, railroads operate locally in Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama only; all rail transport has been suspended in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The railways still operating do not cross national borders.
Wien Hauptbahnhof, Vienna Central Station or Vienna Main Station is the main railway station in Vienna, Austria, located in the Favoriten district. It became fully operational in December 2015, linking major railway lines from the north, east, south and west, and replacing the old Wien Südbahnhof terminus. With 268,000 daily commuters it is Austria's busiest long-distance railway station. Aside from being voted "Austria's most beautiful railway station", it was also second in Consumer Choice Center's ranking of "Top 10 Railway Stations for Passenger Convenience in Europe".
In rail transport, an open-access operator is an operator that takes full commercial risk, running on infrastructure owned by a third party and buying paths on a chosen route and in countries where rail services run under franchises are not subject to franchising.
A ski train is a passenger train which is marketed to carry passengers to ski resorts. A ski train may only operate during the winter sports season, or it may operate more frequently and have extra capacity during the winter sports season.
A motorail train or accompanied car train (ACT) is a passenger train on which passengers can take their car or automobile along with them on their journey. Passengers are carried in normal passenger carriages or in sleeping carriages on longer journeys, while the cars are loaded into autoracks, car-carriers, or flatcars that normally form part of the same train.
DB AutoZug GmbH was a German rail transport company that provided automobile (Motorail) and night passenger train services for Deutsche Bahn AG. It was based in Dortmund and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG. On 30 September 2013 the company was merged into DB AG's long-distance division DB Fernverkehr.
A car shuttle train, or (sometimes) car-carrying train, is a shuttle train used to transport accompanied cars (automobiles), and usually also bicycles and other types of road vehicles, for a relatively short distance.
Hamburg-Köln-Express GmbH (HKX) was a Cologne-based open-access train operating company providing long-distance railway passenger services in Germany. It was founded in October 2009 as a joint venture by Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) Deutschland GmbH, an affiliate of USA-based Railroad Development Corp., Locomore rail GmbH & CO. KG, and British railway investor Michael Schabas.
Vivarail was a British rolling stock manufacturer, founded in 2012 and based in Southam, Warwickshire. Vivarail's main project was the conversion of retired London Underground D78 Stock into two new classes for National Rail services. It was led by former Chiltern Railways chairman Adrian Shooter; the American Railroad Development Corporation was a shareholder.
The Northern Railroad of Guatemala was a railway system that ran from Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios, the main port of Guatemala, between 1896 and 1968. The American United Fruit Company had the monopoly of the railway system through its affiliate, International Railways of Central America, along with the docks at Puerto Barrios, the banana plantations in Izabal and the cargo and passenger transport with its Great White Fleet. The system was highly efficient, but once a parallel highway was built, it could not compete and eventually was handed back to the State of Guatemala in 1968. After that, the system slowly lost its relevance, as the trucks were more profitable than railway transportation along this route. It ceased regular operations in 1996, and has remained partially abandoned since.
Nightjet is a brand name given by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) to its overnight passenger train services.
FlixTrain is a German open-access operator of long-distance railway services. It is a subsidiary of the mobility company Flix SE, which also owns long-distance coach operator FlixBus and is supplementing the bus network with rail connections.
Henry Posner III is an American transport executive and investor working in the field of rail transport.