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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 Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...
employee
Henry Posner III Henry Posner III is transport executive and investor working in the field of rail transport. Posner received a bachelor degree in Civil engineering from Princeton University in 1977, and received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Financ ...
.


Americas


Argentina

RDC participated in the ownership of two rail lines in Argentina:RDC operating entities
Railroad Development Corporation


a
broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
line also in partnership with América Latina Logística and the Argentine government. It formerly operated as Buenos Aires al Pacífico - San Martin, Ferrocarril General San Martín, and
Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway The Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway (BA&P) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Buenos Aires al Pacífico) was one of the ''Big Four'' broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The original concession w ...
.
ALL Mesopotámica
a
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
line in partnership with América Latina Logística and the
Argentine government The government of Argentina, within the framework of a federal system, is a presidential representative democratic republic. The President of Argentina is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President. ...
. It formerly operated as Ferrocarril Mesopotámico - General Urquiza and
Ferrocarril General Urquiza The General Urquiza Railway (FCGU) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril General Urquiza), named after the Argentine general and politician Justo José de Urquiza, is a standard gauge railway of Argentina which runs approximately northwards from Buenos Aires ...
. In October 2013, both lines were nationalized and were taken over by
Trenes Argentinos Cargas y Logistica Belgrano Cargas y Logística S.A., trading as Trenes Argentinos Cargas, is an Argentine State-owned company which operates a freight rail network that includes Belgrano, Urquiza and San Martín railways. It is a subsidiary of Trenes Argentin ...
.


Colombia

In August 2012 Ferrocarril del Pacífico that RDC has a shareholding in, resumed operations on the Buenaventura to Yumbo section of the Pacific line.


Guatemala

RDC managed the previously closed gauge Ferrovias Guatemala (FVG) under a 50-year concession from 1997. In August 2006, the government of Guatemala invalidated a 2003 contract for the usufruct of rolling stock and other equipment. 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. The legal action was settled in RDC's favor in December 2013.


Peru

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 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 seco ...
(FCCA) included RDC, Juan Olaechea & Company, Minas Buenaventura, Cementos Andino, Mitsui and the
Commonwealth Development Corporation British International Investment, (formerly CDC Group plc, Commonwealth Development Corporation, and Colonial Development Corporation) is the development finance institution of the UK government. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ...
. It was agreed in June 2006 by the Peruvian government that FCCA should go ahead with converting the Ferrocarril Huancayo - Huancavelica from to (
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
). Estimated to take 16 months, the US$33m project was to be funded jointly by the government and the
Development Bank of Latin America Development or developing may refer to: Arts * Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photograph ...
. This project was finished by October 2010.


United States

RDC operates the Iowa Interstate Railroad. RDC first invested in the railroad in 1991, exercising an option to purchase in January 2004. In November 2008, RDC entered a joint venture with LeGrand America to operate a business class road coach service from Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. It ceased in July 2009. In December of 2022, RDC became part of a $16 million proposal by SEPTA and
Chester County Chester County may refer to: * Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States * Chester County, South Carolina, United States * Chester County, Tennessee, United States * Cheshire or the County Palatine of Chester, a ceremonial county in the North Wes ...
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.


Europe


Belgium

In January 2015, RDC purchased a 25% shareholding in Eurorail.


Estonia

RDC purchased a 5% shareholding in
Eesti Raudtee Eesti Raudtee or EVR is the national railway infrastructure company of Estonia. It owns a network of of broad gauge () railway throughout the country, including the used by the Elron commuter trains around Tallinn. Its sole shareholder is the ...
on August 31, 2001, selling it on January 9, 2007.


France

In 2009 Réseau Ferré de France,
Caisse des dépôts et consignations The Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC; ) is a French public sector financial institution created in 1816, and part of the government institutions under the control of the Parliament. Often described as the "investment arm" of the French ...
and RDC formed a joint venture to promote local freight.


Germany

Hamburg-Köln-Express 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) Deu ...
(HKX) was founded as a joint venture in November 2009 between RDC (75%),
Locomore Locomore (identifier LOC) was a German railway company that operated in 2016-2017 a higher-speed inter-city rail open access service between four of the most populous German metropolitan areas; i.e. the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region, Rhine-Nec ...
(17.5%) and railway investor
Michael Schabas Michael Schabas is a UK-based railway consultant who has been involved in launching several railway projects and businesses. He has advised clients on projects in more than 20 other countries. Early life and education Schabas was born and rais ...
(7.5%). 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. Operations commenced on July 23, 2012. 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. 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. BTE in December 2016 started operating the ''BTE AutoReiseZug'' motorail service between Hamburg and Lörrach. 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 The Vectron is a locomotive series made by Siemens Mobility, introduced at the 2010 InnoTrans trade fair in four prototype versions: diesel, multi-system, and both AC and DC electric power. The diesel version has been replaced in 2018 by a dua ...
diesel locomotives for its ''RDC Autozug Sylt'' car shuttle operations. 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. In 2021, its operation will also include southwestern Germany with Konstanz as destination by dividing southbound trains in Gemünden. 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. The rolling stock,
battery-electric A battery electric vehicle (BEV), pure electric vehicle, only-electric vehicle, fully electric vehicle or all-electric vehicle is a type of electric vehicle (EV) that exclusively uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs, wi ...
Stadler Flirt Akku trains, was to be provided by the tendering authority. The network was to comprise the following train services: * RE72 between
Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...
and Kiel, * RB73 between
Eckernförde Eckernförde ( da, Egernførde, sometimes also , nds, Eckernför, sometimes also ) () is a German town in Schleswig-Holstein, Rendsburg-Eckernförde, on the coast of the Baltic Sea approximately 30 km north-west of Kiel. The population is ...
and Kiel, * RE74 between
Husum Husum (, frr, Hüsem) is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey town by the sea". It is also the home of ...
and Kiel, * RB75 between
Rendsburg Rendsburg ( da, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'', nds, Rendsborg, also ''Rensborg'') is a town on the River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the central part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) of Rendsburg-Ecke ...
and Kiel, and * RB64 between Husum and Bad St. Peter-Ording. In January 2022, the contract was terminated after legal action by incumbent
DB Regio DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio bus ...
. Instead of RDC,
Nordbahn Nordbahn (german: Northern Railway) may refer to: * Berlin Northern Railway (''Berliner Nordbahn''), a railway line in Germany * Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn, another railway line in Germany * Nordbahn Eisenbahngesellschaft, a railway company based ...
was awarded the contract.


United Kingdom

RDC is a shareholder in
Vivarail Vivarail is a British rolling stock manufacturer, founded in 2012 and based in Southam. Vivarail's main project is the conversion of retired London Underground D78 Stock into two new classes for National Rail services. It was led by former Chil ...
that is converting London Underground D78 Stock electric multiple units into Class 230 diesel multiple units.


International night trains

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. 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 Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
via Copenhagen to Hamburg from mid-2022. The train will be operated jointly with Danish railways
DSB DSB may refer to: Science, technology and devices * DsbA, a bacterial member of the Dsb (disulfide bond) family of enzymes * Double strand break, a break in both DNA strands, part of DNA repair * in telecommunications, double-sideband transmission ...
and RDC, with the latter providing the rolling stock, crew, as well as operating the train within Germany.


Africa


Malawi

Through the
Central East African Railways Central East African Railways is a consortium formed in 1999, led by the Railroad Development Corporation, which won the right to operate the Malawi Railways network. The company was sold in September 2008 to INSITEC, an investment group based in ...
consortium, RDC operated the
Malawi Railways Malawi Railways was a government corporation that ran the national rail network of Malawi, Africa, until privatisation in 1999. With effect from 1 December 1999, the Central East African Railways consortium led by Railroad Development Corporati ...
network which connects with the
Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (abbreviated CFM; in English Mozambique Ports and Railways) is a state-owned company that oversees the railway system of Mozambique and its connected ports. The rail system is composed of a total of 2,9 ...
line in Mozambique from December 1999. The operation was sold in 2008.Company profile
Central East African Railways


References

{{Reflist, 2


External links

* Headquarters
RDC Company website
* Americas
Iowa Interstate Railroad, LTD (IAIS)

Ferrocarril Central Andino S.A. (FCCA)
* Europe
Vivarail

BahnTouristikExpress GmbH (BTE)
(in German only)
RDC Autozug Sylt GmbH
(in German only) Companies based in Pittsburgh Railway companies established in 1987 United States railroad holding companies 1987 establishments in Pennsylvania