In the United States, a private railroad is a railroad owned by a company and serves only that company, and does not hold itself out as a "common carrier" (i.e., it does not provide rail transport services for the general public).
I USA er en privatbane (private railroad) en jernbane, der ejes af et selskab og kun tjener dette, og som ikke fungerer som "almindelig vognmand" (common carrier), dvs. at de f.eks. ikke tilbyder jernbanetransport for folk i almindelighed.