The Railgon Company, (
reporting marks Reporting may refer to
* any activity that leads to reports
* in particular business reporting
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* Financial reporting
* international reporting of financial information for tax purposes under the OECD's ...
GONX, GNTX) established in 1979, is an American company that owns
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
gondola
The gondola (, ; , ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull, in a scul ...
cars available for use by multiple railroads by placing the cars in a
cooperative
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
pool.
Shipments in gondola cars and other rolling stock are often used to transport goods on more than one railroad before reaching the receiver. Under the regulations governing railway transport, individual railroads paid fees, called car hire, for the time and mileage to utilize other railroads’ railcars (whether loaded or empty) Car hire was designed to promote the rapid return of rolling stock, since delays equated to extra money spent.
Because of the desire to reduce costs by minimizing car hire, non-owning railroads may have declined the practice of allowing cars to continue on past their initial destination to points further from the car's "home". This had the effect of decreasing efficiency on these lines, and Railgon (and Railbox) used this argument to promote use of their rolling stock.
Railroad deregulation as part of the
Staggers Act
The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 is a United States federal law that deregulated the American railroad industry to a significant extent, and it replaced the regulatory structure that had existed since the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.
Backgrou ...
reduced the need for this service, and the use of this cooperative arrangement consequently declined. As a result, today the Railgon pool is significantly smaller than at its peak.
Railgon (and the similar
Railbox Company) are currently
subsidiaries
A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidiary company. Unl ...
of
TTX Company
TTX Company (formerly TrailerTrain) is a provider of railcars and related freight car management services to the North American rail industry. TTX's pool of railcars—over 168,000 cars and intermodal well cars—supports shippers in several ind ...
, formerly the Trailer Train Company, which is owned by multiple railroads and leases cars to them. There are currently 1188 cars in the Railgon fleet, compared with over 13,000
boxcar
A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...
s in the Railbox fleet.
References
Rolling stock leasing companies
Rail cooperatives
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