Federated Railways, Inc., a Farmington Hills, Mich., affiliate of Federated Capital Corp., entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Rail Logistics, LLC, including its "Cold Train" express intermodal service. The new subsidiary will be called Federated Cold Train, LLC, and will conduct business as Cold Train. The company will maintain its current management team and staff, including Steve Lawson as president and CEO, and will retain its current headquarters in Overland Park, Kan.
Federated Capital’s holdings consist of a variety of service, leasing and railroad assets, including the Great Lakes Central Railroad, Inc. (GLCR), a 400-mile regional railroad operating entirely in Michigan, and Federated Railcar, Inc., owner of a fleet of refurbished passenger cars. Rail Logistics launched the "Cold Train" express intermodal service in partnership with BNSF Railway from the Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal in Quincy, Wash., and then more recently began a similar Cold Train service from Portland, Ore.
In 2013, Cold Train expanded its Washington-based refrigerated container fleet to over 400 state-of-the-art, 53-foot containers while adding several new destinations on the East Coast. As a result, Cold Train now delivers refrigerated cargo from Washington and Oregon to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida. Cold Train also has regular express service from Washington and Oregon to Toronto, Ontario.
Furthermore, Cold Train hauls refrigerated and frozen foods and some dry goods back from the Midwest and East Coast to Washington and Oregon. In other words, Cold Train ships loaded or full containers both directions to maximize utilization of equipment, which helps to reduce costs and provide both an inbound and outbound service for shippers and receivers. The combined assets of Federated Capital and Cold Train will provide a wide variety of freight transportation options for shippers, growers, producers, packers, food processors and retailers alike.
"The addition of Cold Train to our portfolio of service and asset-based companies will allow Federated Capital Corp. to add the fast growing 'domestic intermodal' sector to its freight rail transportation portfolio. This is important as many shippers and receivers are looking for door-to-door intermodal logistics solutions that decrease cost, increase efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint," says Louis Ferris, president of Federated Capital. "Federated Capital plans to add a minimum of 1,000 containers to the Cold Train fleet over the next five years, bringing the fleet to 1,400 containers."
