Its purpose is to promote rail industry privatization by bringing together government bodies wishing to sell their stakes with investment capital and management skills.
Rail World was incorporated in July 1999 by Edward Burkhardt, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer.
After the derailment at Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada of a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MM&A) freight train on July 6, 2013 which left 47 people dead or missing, president Edward Burkhardt visited Lac-Mégantic on July 10, 2013, and was heckled by residents who were critical of his company's response to the incident.
Over the previous decade the firm recorded a higher accident rate than the rest of the US rail fleet, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration.
[7][8] The company owes more than seven million dollars to the municipality of Lac-Mégantic in cleanup costs the town has already paid to MM&A contractors and owes severance pay to its laid-off workers; liabilities are expected to increase as lawsuits are filed on behalf of victims of the disaster and as the long process of environmental decontamination and local rebuilding continues.