Raffa Promoted to RBMN EVP Marketing & Sales

Jim Raffa

Reading & Northern (RBMN) executive Jim Raffa has been promoted to Executive Vice President Marketing and Sales. He will assist CEO Andy Muller Jr. and President Wayne Michel in creating and implementing the company’s commercial strategy.

Raffa began his railroad career in 1989 with RBMN predecessor Blue Mountain & Reading Railroad as a trackman. After RBMN was formed in December 1990, he transitioned to Coal Traffic Manager and Real Estate Manager. In 2007, he took an ownership position with two local Class III railroads. In 2020, after the sale of both those lines to R.J. Corman Railroad Group, Raffa returned to RBMN to manage the petrochemical and minerals businesses, including natural gas and Marcellus Shale, as well as industrial development, working closely with EVP Strategic Planning Christina Muller-Levan “on pursuing strategic growth opportunities,” RBMN said.

Raffa has more than 35 years of railroad experience, specializing in business development, project management, marketing and operations. Born and raised in Schuylkill County, Pa., he “has a passion for railroads, especially around his hometown of Schuylkill Haven,” RBMN noted. Raffa graduated from Penn State University in 1988 and has a B.S. in Mathematics with a minor in Secondary Education. He has also completed graduate courses, working toward a Master’s in Education.

“RBMN has enjoyed consistent growth in revenues and carloadings over the past decade,” The Class II noted. ”In the past ten years, freight traffic is up more than 50%, fueled by significant increases in the anthracite coal business and the development of a frac sand franchise spearheaded by Raffa.”

“Jim has done an amazing job in growing our frac sand business as he oversaw the creation and building of our Tunkhannock transload operation, which will handle more than 4,000 carloads of sand this year,” said Andy Muller, Jr. “As we embark on expansion opportunities, Jim is the perfect person to ensure that we offer exceptional service to new Reading & Northern customers as well as continuing our focus on service to all our customers.”

RBMN, with corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, is a privately held railroad company serving more than 80 customers in nine eastern Pennsylvania counties (Berks, Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill, and Wyoming). It has expanded its operations over the past 40 years and now annually handles nearly 40,000 carloads of freight, while its Passenger Department handles more than 300,000 riders annually. RBMN, Railway Age’s 2002, 2011, 2015 and 2020 Regional Railroad of the Year, operates freight and steam- and diesel-powered passenger excursions over 400 miles of track, owns more than 2,000 freight cars, and employs more than 350. This year, the National Railway Historical Society, Railway Age and Railway Track & Structures awarded RBMN their third annual Historic Preservation Award, which recognizes and honors a North American common-carrier railroad for a historically significant preservation project.