New investment to enable company to move quickly in fast-growing market
WALTHAM, MA, Aug. 5, 2008 – RailRunner, N.A., Inc., the developer of an innovative truck-and-rail system designed to bring containerized rail transport to a much wider range of shippers, today announced it has received an investment of $11.7 million through a private placement. U.S. Boston Capital Corporation acted as placement agent.
“Soaring fuel prices and heightened environmental concerns have only strengthened the trend to shift as much freight transport as possible from highways to railroads. That has created strong interest worldwide in the RailRunner system,” said Charles Foskett, RailRunner CEO. “This additional capital enables us to move more quickly to meet this surging market demand.”
RailRunner ‘s Terminal Anywhere™ Technology allows shippers to make greater use of rail in transporting their goods because it makes intermodal transportation cost effective for shorter distances and for smaller markets. RailRunner enables a shipper to shift a loaded container from road to rail and back without transloading any freight or the need for terminals and expensive cranes to lift the container from one mode to another. This puts container-based shipping within reach of the huge market of manufacturers, farmers, shippers, wholesalers and retailers who are not located near traditional intermodal hubs.
RailRunner uses specially designed chassis and rail bogies (the sets of railroad wheels that fit under the chassis, front and back, transforming it into a rail vehicle). Once on the chassis, a standard shipping container can be hauled over the road just like a traditional trailer or it can be quickly moved onto bogies to move by rail. The standardized containers handled by the RailRunner system can be interchanged among all modes of transport: road, rail, ship and air. Freight can be moved onto and off of the rails by a truck at a siding with minimal infrastructure changes, bringing low-cost rail intermodal container shipping to the short-haul rail market and, potentially, to hundreds of smaller cities and towns in North America and Europe.
About RailRunner
RailRunner (www.railrunner.com) is an innovative rail products and services company bringing a new Road-Ready intermodal rail product to shippers worldwide. RailRunner’s worldwide patented container-carrying bi-modal system is designed to quickly; simply and efficiently shift chassis and container to and from highway to rail and back. With RailRunner’s low-investment Terminal Anywhere™ technology, no flatcars, pocket or well cars, huge cranes, high-value lift equipment or expensive terminal infrastructure are involved. Road-Ready trailers or chassis extend trucking or container services to markets and locations not previously reachable, improving shipping efficiency, lowering fuel cost, and reducing traffic congestion and air pollution, thus supporting environmental goals of transferring freight transport from road to more environmental-friendly rail. The company is privately held and based in Waltham, MA.
For further RailRunner press information contact:
Mark Metzger
Metzger Communications
+1-781-254-4186
mmetzger@metzgerco.com