February 25 –
Bombardier is awarded a contract to build 361
passenger cars for a new Chinese rail line to
Lhasa, Tibet; due to the destination's altitude the cars will include special
UV-filtering glass and a unique
oxygen enriching system.[2]
March 2 – Citing disputes in paid leave policies, around 200
BNSF dispatchers walk off the job for nearly three hours, causing traffic delays over the entire system from Chicago to the Pacific coast.[4]
March 14 –
Canadian Pacific purchases 35 new
Green Goat hybrid locomotives, becoming the first railroad to order this type of locomotive.[5]
April events
April 1
– All former
BC Rail systems and operations are fully integrated into those of the purchasing railroad,
Canadian National.[6]
April 13 – The transport ministry of
Bulgaria issues the first freight transport license to a private company,
Bulgarian Railroad Company, to operate on the nation's rail network.[9]
May 26 –
Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) announce that they have agreed to purchase the railroad operations of
Rail Management Corporation (RMC). G&W will pay US$243 million in cash and assume $1.7 million in company debt to gain control of 14
short line railroads from RMC across the southeastern United States, as of June 1, 2005. G&W already controls 24 other railroads in North America, South America and Australia.[12][13]
June 2 – Railroad workers across France go on strike to demand better wages and jobs. The strike, which began at 18:00 GMT on Wednesday, is expected to last through 6:00 GMT Friday. Nearly 40% of all
TGV schedules are dropped for the duration of the strike.[15]
June 4 –
Lalu Prasad, India's Railway Minister, presents his
Rs.532 billion (US$12 billion) budget for
Indian Railways for 2005–06. The network of more than 9,000
passenger trains will not increase passenger fares, will add 46 new trains, increase frequencies on 10 others and plans to inaugurate new
high speed train service between New Delhi and
Kolkata and another between New Delhi and
Chennai.[16]
June 22 – The entire network of the
Swiss Federal Railways shuts down due to a power failure in its
overhead wire system. The power failure is also affecting international transit through Switzerland as such intercity trains use the same system. Initial reports indicate that the power failure started with a voltage drop in
Ticino (in the
St. Gotthard region) that then spread to the entire system.[17][18]
July 29 –
Iarnród Éireann, the Irish state railway operator, ceases all container freight traffic on
the network. Freight yards at
Limerick and
Dublin will be closed.
August events
August 4 –
Argentinian railroad workers across the country (except for the
subway operators in
Buenos Aires) go on strike for 24 hours demanding higher wages. The strike comes after 100 days of failed negotiations between the railroads and the engine driver
unions; if an agreement cannot be reached within a week, the unions have threatened a subsequent 36-hour strike. The railroad employees strike coincides with a 72-hour health care workers strike that is still occurring.[19]
August 24 – Chinese railroad workers in
Tibet laid rails on the
Tanggula Mountain Pass in Tibet at 5,072 m (16,640 ft) above sea level, surpassing the altitude of the highest
Peruvian railway by 255 m (837 ft). This section of the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway is now the highest railway in the world. The railway also includes the highest
railway station in the world at
Lhasa, 5,068 m (16,627 ft) above sea level. The railway is expected to open later in 2005.[22]
September 6 –
Indonesian transport officials at a meeting in
Bandar Lampung announce plans to build a trans-
Sumatran railway to connect
Banda Aceh to
Bakauheni, a distance of 2,151 km (1,337 mi). A
Feasibility Study performed after the
2004 tsunami by
SNCF, the national rail carrier of France, showed that such a line could be built. Construction is expected to commence in seven stages; the first stage would connect Banda Aceh to
Besitang (484 km / 301 miles).
(Indonesia Relief)
September 13 – The
Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), the national rail carrier of
Nigeria, announces that it has laid off 5,980 of its nearly 12,000 employees, answering a call from the Nigerian government to downsize. The government first asked NRC for a 50% reduction in the last quarter of 2003; NRC waited until there was sufficient funds from the government for
severance packages for the affected employees. In all, the government released nearly
N2.1 billion (US$16 million) to NRC for severance pay. Some of NRC's layoff criteria included fraud, excessive
absenteeism, employees who had worked for more than 33 years, or who were aged 50–60, and employees with a history of disciplinary actions.
(AllAfrica)
September 20 – Japanese officials announce the government's intentions to pay former
World War IIprisoners of war involved in the construction of the
Death Railway between
Thailand and
Burma. Compensation amounts have not been announced; some estimates place the number of construction survivors at 1,800, most now aged in their 80s and 90s. The compensation for laborers who have died either during construction or afterward would be sent to their next of kin.[26]
September 29 – Sixty years after
World War II,
Nederlandse Spoorwegen issues a statement formally apologizing for transporting Jewish people to
Naziconcentration camps in Germany and Poland during the war.
Aad Veenman [
nl], the railway's chief executive stated "On behalf of the company and from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely apologise for what happened during the war." The railway made the decision to issue the formal apology after the largest Dutch Jewish organization, Centraal Joods Overleg, proposed an awareness campaign to take place at the railway's stations nationwide. Reaction among the survivors is mixed.[27]
October events
October 6 –
Amtrak announces that the City of New Orleans and Crescentpassenger trains will again serve New Orleans
Union Station beginning on Sunday October 9. Before
Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Amtrak suspended City of New Orleans service south of
Memphis, Tennessee, and suspended Crescent service south of
Atlanta, Georgia, in anticipation of damage to the
tracks and
signal systems surrounding New Orleans. The first departure from New Orleans will be the northbound Crescent at 7:20 AM, followed by the northbound City of New Orleans at 1:45 PM; the first corresponding southbound trains are scheduled to arrive in New Orleans later that afternoon. Amtrak's announcement did not mention service restoration on the transcontinental Sunset Limited.[28]
October 14 – The concession for operation of the
Kenya-Uganda Railways is awarded to
Rift Valley Railways Consortium (RVRC), headquartered in South Africa. In announcing the bid, officials state that Rift Valley was selected over
RITES Ltd. of India, the only other bidder, by a factor of two to one. The new operator is expected to begin management of the combined railway on March 30, 2006. RVRC will not be expected to take up the railways
KSh.20.9 billion/= (US$282 million) debt, but will repay the
Kenyan government KSh.3 billion/= ($40.5 million) that was spent to subsidize the railway for the last three years.[29]
October 15 – Chinese officials announce the completion of the
Qingzang railway connecting
Xining,
Qinghai Province, to
Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region. The line's construction, which has been criticized by some who say the new railway will dilute Tibetan culture, had to overcome technical challenges that included building a railway on top of
permafrost and boring tunnels through solid ice while construction workers breathed bottled
oxygen.[30]
October 17 – British railway ministers announce that Scottish Ministers will soon take control of railway administration within Scotland. The powers will include decisions over operations and infrastructure (such as
tracks and
stations) as well as oversight of the
First ScotRail franchise. The British government will also supply a multi-million
pound grant to fund the Scottish rail operations, money that is needed in order to move the
Edinburgh station improvement project forward, for example. British ministers will retain train driver licensing as well as other safety obligations.[31]
October 24 – World's first biogas train makes maiden voyage.
October 31 –
Rapid transit workers in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, go on strike.
SEPTA, the fifth largest transit agency in the United States, is forced to temporarily close several lines due to a lack of trained employees. Union negotiators walked out of contract negotiations minutes before the midnight deadline when they failed to come to a conclusion; disputes were centered around employee pay and benefits agreements. All operators on the City, Victory, and Frontier Divisions walked off the job. SEPTA services on the regional rail division continue according to contingency plans, and all bus, trolley, and subway lines are suspended until the conclusion of the work stoppage.[32]
November events
November 1 – Government officials in China announce plans to privatise the
nation's rail network into separate corporations that could be listed on international
stock markets. The strategy is to raise money for improvements and expansions to the network, which would increase the amount of track by about 27,000 km (17,000 mi). The plan could lead to partial or complete foreign ownership of some railway lines, but some investors have already raised concerns over the network's
regulatory system, especially in regard to the newly independent railways' abilities to raise prices to cover costs.
(BBC News)
November 4 – The United States
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announces a requirement for increased and more detailed inspections of around 90,000 miles (140,000 km) of
track that use
continuous welded rail. The inspections are to detect and repair potential problems that involve loose or missing bolts, detectable problems in the rail and other potential hazards. In making the announcement, the FRA and
National Transportation Safety Board cite inadequate track inspections as the cause of three major
derailments since 2002, including a
Canadian Pacific (CP) derailment in January 2002 near
Minot, North Dakota, that released a cloud of
anhydrous ammonia, and an
Amtrak derailment in 2004 near
Flora, Mississippi, in which a passenger died. CP disputes inadequate inspections as the cause of the 2002 accident.
(AP/Newsday)(FRA)
November 23 – Railroad workers across France return to work from a strike action. The labour unions involved in the strike report that they are pleased with concessions agreed to during negotiations on Tuesday and French
PresidentJacques Chirac offered his personal guarantee that
SNCF would not be privatised. The strike, the sixth by French rail workers in 2005, suspended one third of all
TGV trains across the country.
(IHT)
December events
December 2 –
Schnabel car CEBX 800, the largest such car on North American rails, departs
Duluth, Minnesota, in a special
Canadian Pacific train bound for
Long Lake in northern
Alberta. The car is carrying what has been called the largest single-car freight load ever carried in North America, an enormous "hydro cracker" reactor built in pieces in
Dubai and Japan. The 1.5 million
pound load was offloaded from the ship Stellaprima in Duluth on November 23.[33][34][35]
December 7 –
QJ 7081 pulls the world's last regularly scheduled passenger train behind a
steam locomotive on a mainline railroad when it pulls a train between
Daban and
Chabuga, China.
December 11 – In Switzerland, all trains become officially non-smoking
December 20 –
New York City Subway workers walk off their jobs in a
strike called by the
Transport Workers Union at 3:00 AM local time. It is a move that may be in violation of a previous court ruling that makes subway worker strikes illegal, and
MTA lawyers have asked the courts to review the strike action as one that may be in
contempt of court with that ruling. Fines for such a ruling of contempt could include two days pay for each striking employee per day that the strike continues. The union claims that MTA should be able to afford the health care benefit and pension levels sought by the union due to a budget surplus of nearly US$1 billion. While the strike is in progress, the city of New York has implemented emergency statutes that include restricting private vehicles carrying less than four occupants from entering the city between 5:00 AM and 11:00 AM local time.[39]
June 12 – At 7:10 AM local time, a bomb explodes between
Uzunovo and
Bogatishchevo, Russia (about 95 miles / 153 km from Moscow), derailing the
locomotive and first four
passenger cars of the
Grozny-Moscow train. Investigators found wires leading from the explosion site to a control panel and hideout about 164 ft (50 m) from the site.[citation needed]
June 21 – A southbound
passenger train collides with a coal delivery truck near
Revadim, about 25 miles south of
Tel Aviv; the train was bound for
Beersheba when the accident occurred. At least seven people die in the accident and more than 200 are injured.[46]
July 13 –
Ghotki rail crash: A
passenger train stopped at the railway station at
Sarhad, Sindh, near
Ghotki in Pakistan, is hit from behind by a train that has missed a
signal. The derailed cars are subsequently hit by a third train, resulting in a total of seventeen wrecked train cars, which were carrying over 3,000 passengers. Between 109 and 133 people are killed and many injured. Pakistani railroad officials have called this the worst railroad accident there in 15 years.[47][48]
October 29 –
Veligonda rail disaster near the town of
Veligonda, south of
Hyderabad in the Indian State of
Andhra Pradesh. A flash flood sweeps away a small rail bridge and a "Delta Express" train travelling on it derails at the broken section of the line, killing at least 114 people and injuring over 200.
November 29 – In the
Kindu rail accident at least 60 people are killed when they are swept off the roof of a train into the river below as the train crosses a bridge in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.
February 25 –
Bombardier is awarded a contract to build 361
passenger cars for a new Chinese rail line to
Lhasa, Tibet; due to the destination's altitude the cars will include special
UV-filtering glass and a unique
oxygen enriching system.[2]
March 2 – Citing disputes in paid leave policies, around 200
BNSF dispatchers walk off the job for nearly three hours, causing traffic delays over the entire system from Chicago to the Pacific coast.[4]
March 14 –
Canadian Pacific purchases 35 new
Green Goat hybrid locomotives, becoming the first railroad to order this type of locomotive.[5]
April events
April 1
– All former
BC Rail systems and operations are fully integrated into those of the purchasing railroad,
Canadian National.[6]
April 13 – The transport ministry of
Bulgaria issues the first freight transport license to a private company,
Bulgarian Railroad Company, to operate on the nation's rail network.[9]
May 26 –
Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) announce that they have agreed to purchase the railroad operations of
Rail Management Corporation (RMC). G&W will pay US$243 million in cash and assume $1.7 million in company debt to gain control of 14
short line railroads from RMC across the southeastern United States, as of June 1, 2005. G&W already controls 24 other railroads in North America, South America and Australia.[12][13]
June 2 – Railroad workers across France go on strike to demand better wages and jobs. The strike, which began at 18:00 GMT on Wednesday, is expected to last through 6:00 GMT Friday. Nearly 40% of all
TGV schedules are dropped for the duration of the strike.[15]
June 4 –
Lalu Prasad, India's Railway Minister, presents his
Rs.532 billion (US$12 billion) budget for
Indian Railways for 2005–06. The network of more than 9,000
passenger trains will not increase passenger fares, will add 46 new trains, increase frequencies on 10 others and plans to inaugurate new
high speed train service between New Delhi and
Kolkata and another between New Delhi and
Chennai.[16]
June 22 – The entire network of the
Swiss Federal Railways shuts down due to a power failure in its
overhead wire system. The power failure is also affecting international transit through Switzerland as such intercity trains use the same system. Initial reports indicate that the power failure started with a voltage drop in
Ticino (in the
St. Gotthard region) that then spread to the entire system.[17][18]
July 29 –
Iarnród Éireann, the Irish state railway operator, ceases all container freight traffic on
the network. Freight yards at
Limerick and
Dublin will be closed.
August events
August 4 –
Argentinian railroad workers across the country (except for the
subway operators in
Buenos Aires) go on strike for 24 hours demanding higher wages. The strike comes after 100 days of failed negotiations between the railroads and the engine driver
unions; if an agreement cannot be reached within a week, the unions have threatened a subsequent 36-hour strike. The railroad employees strike coincides with a 72-hour health care workers strike that is still occurring.[19]
August 24 – Chinese railroad workers in
Tibet laid rails on the
Tanggula Mountain Pass in Tibet at 5,072 m (16,640 ft) above sea level, surpassing the altitude of the highest
Peruvian railway by 255 m (837 ft). This section of the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway is now the highest railway in the world. The railway also includes the highest
railway station in the world at
Lhasa, 5,068 m (16,627 ft) above sea level. The railway is expected to open later in 2005.[22]
September 6 –
Indonesian transport officials at a meeting in
Bandar Lampung announce plans to build a trans-
Sumatran railway to connect
Banda Aceh to
Bakauheni, a distance of 2,151 km (1,337 mi). A
Feasibility Study performed after the
2004 tsunami by
SNCF, the national rail carrier of France, showed that such a line could be built. Construction is expected to commence in seven stages; the first stage would connect Banda Aceh to
Besitang (484 km / 301 miles).
(Indonesia Relief)
September 13 – The
Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), the national rail carrier of
Nigeria, announces that it has laid off 5,980 of its nearly 12,000 employees, answering a call from the Nigerian government to downsize. The government first asked NRC for a 50% reduction in the last quarter of 2003; NRC waited until there was sufficient funds from the government for
severance packages for the affected employees. In all, the government released nearly
N2.1 billion (US$16 million) to NRC for severance pay. Some of NRC's layoff criteria included fraud, excessive
absenteeism, employees who had worked for more than 33 years, or who were aged 50–60, and employees with a history of disciplinary actions.
(AllAfrica)
September 20 – Japanese officials announce the government's intentions to pay former
World War IIprisoners of war involved in the construction of the
Death Railway between
Thailand and
Burma. Compensation amounts have not been announced; some estimates place the number of construction survivors at 1,800, most now aged in their 80s and 90s. The compensation for laborers who have died either during construction or afterward would be sent to their next of kin.[26]
September 29 – Sixty years after
World War II,
Nederlandse Spoorwegen issues a statement formally apologizing for transporting Jewish people to
Naziconcentration camps in Germany and Poland during the war.
Aad Veenman [
nl], the railway's chief executive stated "On behalf of the company and from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely apologise for what happened during the war." The railway made the decision to issue the formal apology after the largest Dutch Jewish organization, Centraal Joods Overleg, proposed an awareness campaign to take place at the railway's stations nationwide. Reaction among the survivors is mixed.[27]
October events
October 6 –
Amtrak announces that the City of New Orleans and Crescentpassenger trains will again serve New Orleans
Union Station beginning on Sunday October 9. Before
Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Amtrak suspended City of New Orleans service south of
Memphis, Tennessee, and suspended Crescent service south of
Atlanta, Georgia, in anticipation of damage to the
tracks and
signal systems surrounding New Orleans. The first departure from New Orleans will be the northbound Crescent at 7:20 AM, followed by the northbound City of New Orleans at 1:45 PM; the first corresponding southbound trains are scheduled to arrive in New Orleans later that afternoon. Amtrak's announcement did not mention service restoration on the transcontinental Sunset Limited.[28]
October 14 – The concession for operation of the
Kenya-Uganda Railways is awarded to
Rift Valley Railways Consortium (RVRC), headquartered in South Africa. In announcing the bid, officials state that Rift Valley was selected over
RITES Ltd. of India, the only other bidder, by a factor of two to one. The new operator is expected to begin management of the combined railway on March 30, 2006. RVRC will not be expected to take up the railways
KSh.20.9 billion/= (US$282 million) debt, but will repay the
Kenyan government KSh.3 billion/= ($40.5 million) that was spent to subsidize the railway for the last three years.[29]
October 15 – Chinese officials announce the completion of the
Qingzang railway connecting
Xining,
Qinghai Province, to
Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region. The line's construction, which has been criticized by some who say the new railway will dilute Tibetan culture, had to overcome technical challenges that included building a railway on top of
permafrost and boring tunnels through solid ice while construction workers breathed bottled
oxygen.[30]
October 17 – British railway ministers announce that Scottish Ministers will soon take control of railway administration within Scotland. The powers will include decisions over operations and infrastructure (such as
tracks and
stations) as well as oversight of the
First ScotRail franchise. The British government will also supply a multi-million
pound grant to fund the Scottish rail operations, money that is needed in order to move the
Edinburgh station improvement project forward, for example. British ministers will retain train driver licensing as well as other safety obligations.[31]
October 24 – World's first biogas train makes maiden voyage.
October 31 –
Rapid transit workers in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, go on strike.
SEPTA, the fifth largest transit agency in the United States, is forced to temporarily close several lines due to a lack of trained employees. Union negotiators walked out of contract negotiations minutes before the midnight deadline when they failed to come to a conclusion; disputes were centered around employee pay and benefits agreements. All operators on the City, Victory, and Frontier Divisions walked off the job. SEPTA services on the regional rail division continue according to contingency plans, and all bus, trolley, and subway lines are suspended until the conclusion of the work stoppage.[32]
November events
November 1 – Government officials in China announce plans to privatise the
nation's rail network into separate corporations that could be listed on international
stock markets. The strategy is to raise money for improvements and expansions to the network, which would increase the amount of track by about 27,000 km (17,000 mi). The plan could lead to partial or complete foreign ownership of some railway lines, but some investors have already raised concerns over the network's
regulatory system, especially in regard to the newly independent railways' abilities to raise prices to cover costs.
(BBC News)
November 4 – The United States
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announces a requirement for increased and more detailed inspections of around 90,000 miles (140,000 km) of
track that use
continuous welded rail. The inspections are to detect and repair potential problems that involve loose or missing bolts, detectable problems in the rail and other potential hazards. In making the announcement, the FRA and
National Transportation Safety Board cite inadequate track inspections as the cause of three major
derailments since 2002, including a
Canadian Pacific (CP) derailment in January 2002 near
Minot, North Dakota, that released a cloud of
anhydrous ammonia, and an
Amtrak derailment in 2004 near
Flora, Mississippi, in which a passenger died. CP disputes inadequate inspections as the cause of the 2002 accident.
(AP/Newsday)(FRA)
November 23 – Railroad workers across France return to work from a strike action. The labour unions involved in the strike report that they are pleased with concessions agreed to during negotiations on Tuesday and French
PresidentJacques Chirac offered his personal guarantee that
SNCF would not be privatised. The strike, the sixth by French rail workers in 2005, suspended one third of all
TGV trains across the country.
(IHT)
December events
December 2 –
Schnabel car CEBX 800, the largest such car on North American rails, departs
Duluth, Minnesota, in a special
Canadian Pacific train bound for
Long Lake in northern
Alberta. The car is carrying what has been called the largest single-car freight load ever carried in North America, an enormous "hydro cracker" reactor built in pieces in
Dubai and Japan. The 1.5 million
pound load was offloaded from the ship Stellaprima in Duluth on November 23.[33][34][35]
December 7 –
QJ 7081 pulls the world's last regularly scheduled passenger train behind a
steam locomotive on a mainline railroad when it pulls a train between
Daban and
Chabuga, China.
December 11 – In Switzerland, all trains become officially non-smoking
December 20 –
New York City Subway workers walk off their jobs in a
strike called by the
Transport Workers Union at 3:00 AM local time. It is a move that may be in violation of a previous court ruling that makes subway worker strikes illegal, and
MTA lawyers have asked the courts to review the strike action as one that may be in
contempt of court with that ruling. Fines for such a ruling of contempt could include two days pay for each striking employee per day that the strike continues. The union claims that MTA should be able to afford the health care benefit and pension levels sought by the union due to a budget surplus of nearly US$1 billion. While the strike is in progress, the city of New York has implemented emergency statutes that include restricting private vehicles carrying less than four occupants from entering the city between 5:00 AM and 11:00 AM local time.[39]
June 12 – At 7:10 AM local time, a bomb explodes between
Uzunovo and
Bogatishchevo, Russia (about 95 miles / 153 km from Moscow), derailing the
locomotive and first four
passenger cars of the
Grozny-Moscow train. Investigators found wires leading from the explosion site to a control panel and hideout about 164 ft (50 m) from the site.[citation needed]
June 21 – A southbound
passenger train collides with a coal delivery truck near
Revadim, about 25 miles south of
Tel Aviv; the train was bound for
Beersheba when the accident occurred. At least seven people die in the accident and more than 200 are injured.[46]
July 13 –
Ghotki rail crash: A
passenger train stopped at the railway station at
Sarhad, Sindh, near
Ghotki in Pakistan, is hit from behind by a train that has missed a
signal. The derailed cars are subsequently hit by a third train, resulting in a total of seventeen wrecked train cars, which were carrying over 3,000 passengers. Between 109 and 133 people are killed and many injured. Pakistani railroad officials have called this the worst railroad accident there in 15 years.[47][48]
October 29 –
Veligonda rail disaster near the town of
Veligonda, south of
Hyderabad in the Indian State of
Andhra Pradesh. A flash flood sweeps away a small rail bridge and a "Delta Express" train travelling on it derails at the broken section of the line, killing at least 114 people and injuring over 200.
November 29 – In the
Kindu rail accident at least 60 people are killed when they are swept off the roof of a train into the river below as the train crosses a bridge in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.