The American Railway Development Association (ARDA) is a not-for-profit educational trade association founded in 1906 to promote Economic Development, Real Estate Development, Technology, and Environmental Activities of the North American Railroads. ARDA achieves this through the advancement of ideas and education of members to further promote the effectiveness of railway development.

ARDA encourages membership from all classes of railroads throughout North America. Members also include professionals from other associations, agencies, and railroad service partners that have a direct effect on rail business today. ARDA’s membership variety provides a wide perspective on issues facing the railroad industry in the 21st Century.

• Economic Development Committee is focused on enhancing rail business through the expansion and location of new railway and customer facilities.

• Real Estate Committee works to address the challenges that the rail industry faces in the acquisition, sale, and lease of real property.

• Environmental Committee represents the environmental interests of the rail industry and provides awareness and information transfer on related topics.

• Technology Committee promotes technology and systems that advance matters pertaining to railroad environmental, real estate, and economic development activities.

ARDA’s committee structure and its events not only provide informative programs, but also allow members to network with their industry peers. ARDA members include representatives from all of the Class 1 railroads, several shortline railroads, as well as professionals in real estate, economic development, environmental, engineering, legal, and other disciplines. The ARDA conference is an excellent educational and networking opportunity!

The American Railway Development Association celebrated its 100th Anniversary May, 2006, in Chicago, Illinois, where it was founded by a group of railroad agricultural, immigration, real estate and industrial development representatives. ARDA has had continual annual meetings since 1906, except for a couple of interruptions caused by WW I and WW II. This multi-national organization consists of U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroad members.

Proceedings of the annual meetings are still produced and many U. S. libraries, including the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C., the John W. Barriger, III National Railroad Library in St. Louis and the Newberry Library in Chicago, contain these historically diverse annual meeting documents. To read some of these old proceedings provides an interesting chronology of the rail transportation industry when the government was anxious to settle many of the land grant states, promoting agricultural and manufacturing development and their attraction for immigrant settlement.

ARDA's focus and membership today is vastly different from the old real estate and industrial development character that dominated its early years, especially the 1950s through the 1990s. Membership now includes non-rail personnel with a strong focus on the environment and security as it relates to the railroad industry.

So the passage of 100 years is an interesting milestone of railroadiana but as Robert E. Lee is known to have said, "The past is but the past." But it is still a century of intense diversity from an agrarian society to major industrialization following two world wars. A period when it was a fascinating and challenging opportunity to be working on a proposed new General Motors, Toyota, DuPont, International Paper or other plant location, to government facilities in the '50s locating atomic or nuclear-type operations; some facilities that are now considered polluters of our fields and streams, but formerly considered great opportunities for rail traffic, new employment and taxes to local communities.

Former president Paul Blanchet of the Canadian National Railway designed the classic logo of ARDA, a steel wheel on a steel rail, some 30 years ago. Following the adoption of that logo, a large blue and white ARDA banner was then made in Baltimore by a flag firm on Maryland Avenue and appears on the dais at every annual meeting. Consideration is now being given to a new logo to reflect a changing membership and annual meeting focus since 1906.

So, we salute ARDA for a Century of Progress... with loyal and valued railroad employees that not only made a significant economic contribution to their respective railroads but to the 100 years of this nation's dynamic growth. What of the next 100 years (2106), ARDA?

--Excerpts from an article by I. Jay Warren.