He became managing director of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada in 1853,[6] whose corporate headquarters was in London.

In 1855 he prepared a report with A. M. Ross and S. P. Bidder for the board of directors on the prospects for the Grand Trunk railway in Canada, concluding that it "cannot fail to prove a highly profitable enterprize".

[7] In 1853, he was knighted by Edward Eliot, 3rd Earl of St Germans for his role as secretary to the Great Industrial Exhibition, held that year in Dublin.

[6] In 1863–64, he was involved in a legal case relating to shares in The Llanharry Hematite Iron Ore Company Limited of which he was a director.

In the Preface, Roney stated that he had enough material for a further volume, mainly on foreign railways, that he expected to be published later the same year[9] but it never was and he died on 30 September 1868 at Cleveland Square, in the Bayswater district of London.