Railroad Development Corporation


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.

Americas

Argentina

RDC participated in the ownership of two rail lines in Argentina:
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 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 included RDC, Juan Olaechea & Company, Minas Buenaventura, Cementos Andino, Mitsui and the Commonwealth Development Corporation.. It was agreed in June 2006 by the Peruvian government that FCCA should go ahead with converting the Ferrocarril Huancayo - Huancavelica from to . Estimated to take 16 months, the US$33m project was to be funded jointly by the government and the Development Bank of Latin America.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.

Europe

Estonia

RDC purchased a 5% shareholding in Eesti Raudtee on August 31, 2001, selling it on January 9, 2007.

Belgium

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

France

In 2009 Réseau Ferré de France, Caisse des dépôts et consignations and RDC formed a joint venture to promote local freight.

Germany

was founded as a joint venture in November 2009 between RDC, Locomore and railway investor Michael Schabas. 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. 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 diesel locomotives for its RDC Autozug Sylt car shuttle operations.
In 2018 and 2019, BTE is also offering the seasonal night train Alpen Express between the Netherlands and Austria in cooperation with the Dutch agency Treinreiswinkel.

United Kingdom

RDC is a shareholder in Vivarail that is converting London Underground D78 Stock electric multiple units into Class 230 diesel multiple units.

Africa

Malawi

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. The operation was sold in 2008.