1997 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1997.

Events

January events

• January 6 - Full freight and passenger service is restored through the Channel Tunnel, just short of two months after a devastating fire.

March events

• March 3 - Union Pacific Railroad reopens the former Western Pacific Railroad Feather River Canyon line in California after repairs are made from flooding that occurred in January.^[1]
• March 22 - Japan's Akita Shinkansen begins operating over the Morioka-Akita section using Tazawako Line and Ōu Main Line tracks.

April events

• April 25 - Construction begins on Phase II of Manchester Metrolink in Manchester, England.

May events

• May 10 - Amtrak ceases operations of the Chicago-Los Angeles Desert Wind passenger train.
• May 11 - The New York and Atlantic Railway takes over operations of the Long Island Rail Road's freight services.
• May - Kansas City Southern acquires the Gateway Western Railway and begins operating it as a subsidiary railroad.

August events

• August 27 - Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and the United States Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) form a team comprised of UP managers, union employees and FRA representatives to review safety policies and procedures across the UP system.^[2]

September events

• September 3 - Union Pacific Railroad and the United States Federal Railroad Administration introduce the Safety Assurance Compliance Process. (UP)
• September 19 - In the Southall rail crash, the 1032 Great Western Intercity passenger train from Swansea to London Paddington, operating with a defective Automatic Warning System indicator passes a red signal (SPAD) and collides with a freight train leaving its depot, shortly before 1320 local time.
• September 20 - RaiLink Southern Ontario begins operations on the former Canadian National Railway Hagersville subdivision between Nanticoke and Brantford.

November events

• November 11 - The extension of Minsk Metro's Avtozavodskaya Line connecting Traktornyi Zavod to Avtozavodskaya opens.

December events

• December - Illinois RailNet is formed.

Unknown date events

• The Ballard Terminal Railroad is formed to handle freight traffic around Ballard, Seattle, Washington.
• The Beijing-Kowloon Through Train and the Shanghai-Kowloon Through Train starts services.
• The Australian National Railways Commission is privatised with freight operations sold to Pacific National, Tasmanian operations and infrastructure sold to Australian Transport Network Limited, South Australian branch lines sold to the Australian Railroad Group and passenger service to Great Southern Railway.

Deaths

References

• Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 16 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history. Retrieved September 19 2005.
• (February 2002), Flags fall in corporate shuffles, Trains Magazine, p. 17.
• Skeats, William J. (April/May/June 2005), "The New York & Atlantic Railway", The Railroad Press (65), p. 32.
• Union Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad Chronological History. Retrieved September 3 2005

1. ^ Union Pacific Railroad, Chronological History. Retrieved March 3 2006.
2. ^ Union Pacific Railroad. Union Pacific Chronological History. Retrieved on 2006-08-25.

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