The Railway Development Society Ltd (now known as Railfuture Ltd)

This website explains the transition between the Railway Development Society (RDS), the Railway Development Society Ltd, and Railfuture Ltd. This is particularly to enable executors of wills to trace the company.

The current Registered Office is: Edinburgh House, 1-5 Bellevue Road, Clevedon, North Somerset BS21 7NP.


Legal Information

Incorporated in England and Wales on 9 Jan 2004. Company registration number 05011634.

This registration number belongs to the company under which Railfuture has traded since 2004 (see Company History section below).

The registration for the company at Companies House can be found at https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05011634.

Up to 7 February 2018 the company name was The Railway Development Society Ltd.

On 8 February 2018 the company was renamed to Railfuture Ltd.

A copy of the Companies House certificate of name change can be found [HERE].

Only the company name is affected by this change - the activities, directors, banking etc. are unaffected.

The executors of any wills naming The Railway Development Society Ltd as a beneficiary should contact Railfuture Ltd. Members should refer to Railfuture Ltd when making or changing their wills.

Gift Aid: Railfuture Ltd is not a charity and is unable to benefit from Gift Aid. Neither is it exempt from any tax liabilities (such as inheritance tax) when a legacy is received.


Company History

The (not for profit) Company Limited by Guarantee acquired the assets of the unincorporated Railway Development Society (RDS) following the Annual General Meeting in Newcastle on 8 May 2004. The RDS was founded in 1978 by the merger of the Railway Development Association (RDA) and the Railway Invigoration Society (RIS), both of which date back to the 1950s (the RIS originally being known as the Society for the Reinvigoration of Unremunerative Branch Lines in the UK).

A company called Railfuture Ltd (registration number 04265306 - see Companies House registration) was created by the Railway Development Society on 6 August 2001 to protect its campaigning and trading name Railfuture. This company shares the same directors and registered office but has never traded.

On 1 February 2018 this non-trading company was renamed (to RDS 2018 Ltd) in order to enable The Railway Development Society Ltd to be renamed to Railfuture Ltd. This follows a vote of the members by more than the necessary 75% at the company AGM in Peterborough on 20 May 2017. On 26 February 2019 the non-trading RDS 2018 Ltd company was dissolved as it was no longer necessary to use the company to protect the old name.


For any further information please contact the Company Secretary at the Registered Office.

Other company contacts can be found at HERE.


Last amended: 24 May 2022 (migration from Gridhost to cPanel).

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