May 2005 in rail transport

2004, 2005, 2006

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in May 2005.

[edit] Events

- The Iranian president Mohammad Khatami leads the ceremony inaugurating passenger rail service between Mashhad and Bafq, Iran. [1]
- Union Pacific Railroad's transcontinental mainline is blocked when a train derails in Galt, Illinois (about 50 miles / 80 km east of the Quad Cities), and destroys the 140 ft (42.6 m) bridge across Elkhorn Creek. [2] [3]

- A rail bridge collapses on the Napier - Gisborne, (New Zealand) line as 2 x DC Class locomotives hauling a 60 ton crane crosses. The crane fell into the Nuhaka River. There were no injuries. The bridge supports had been weakened by marine molusc Teredo Navalis (commonly known as shipworm). The presence of this worm is consdierd sporadic rather than endemic (usually, not occurring this far south). Authorities are to investigate whether the presence of the worms is a result of climate change. It has also triggered a change of policy in bridge examinations.

- In the Biaora level crossing accident an ox cart is hit by an express train at Biaora in Madhya Pradesh, India, killing 8 people.

- A fire engulfs a railroad bridge in Kearney, New Jersey, on the heavily travelled Northeast Corridor. [4]

- Former CEO of BNSF Railway, Robert Krebs, and former United States Federal Railroad Administration Administrator, Jolene Molitoris, both join the Board of Directors for Railpower Technologies. [5]

- Canadian National Railway and the Teamsters reach an agreement just short of a deadline for a strike that would have shut down GO Transit. [6]

- BNSF Railway takes delivery of its first diesel locomotives with built-in video cameras and microphones to record grade crossing incidents; BNSF intends to mount cameras in all lead-qualified locomotives by December 2005. [7]
- JR West adviser Masataka Ide announces that he will resign at the company's annual shareholder meeting in June 2005 to take responsibility for the Amagasaki rail crash; the chairman and president will also resign later in August. [8]
- Fire causes an estimated $30,000 in damages to a bridge on Union Pacific Railroad's Nogales Subdivision south of Tucson, Arizona. Investigators believe the cause to be arson. [9] [10]

- A fully loaded passenger train collides with a stopped freight train in Lampung, Indonesia; initial reports indicate at least seven fatalities and hundreds more injured. [11]
- Bombardier is awarded a contract to build a new automated people mover system for Beijing Capital International Airport in China. On completion, the system will be Bombardier's first system in China. The contract is valued at nearly $89 million. [12] [13]

Sumitomo and Nippon Sharyo are awarded a contract to build eleven new bilevel passenger cars for Virginia Railway Express; the contract is valued at $109 million, and the new cars are expected to be delivered in 2006 and 2007. [14]

- Twelve Chinese railroad workers are rescued after being trapped in a collapsed tunnel for six days. Rescuers were able to transfer milk and oxygen to the trapped workers through a ventilation tube until the collapse was penetrated. [15] [16]
- Chicago's Metra unveils the first new bilevel electric coaches in a $76.5 million order to completely re-equip the railroad's former Illinois Central electric lines. The new cars are the first on the electric division to include toilets. [17]

- Railpower Technologies announces that an as-yet unnamed United States Class I railroad has placed a firm order for ten Green Goat hybrid locomotives. The locomotives will be manufactured at plants in Calgary, Alberta, Boise, Idaho, and Longview, Texas. [18]
- SNCF announces that a new high speed train connection between Paris and Frankfurt will be built; it is expected to open in 2007, with ridership estimates as high as 1.5 million per year. [19]
- Norfolk Southern receives the TRANSCAER National Achievement Award for 2004. TRANSCAER is an acronym for Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response, an organization promoting emergency preparedness among first responders and communities about accidents involving hazardous materials releases. [20]

Amtrak announces that it will open a new passenger train stop on the California-funded Capitol Corridor trains in Oakland on June 6; the new station is at the Oakland Coliseum and adjacent to the local BART stop. [21]
- The Martello, Shakespeare and Abbotscliffe railway tunnels in Kent, England, close after 160 years of continuous service for renovation work estimated at £10 million; the work is expected to take four months to complete. [22]

- Genesee and Wyoming (G&W) announce that they have agreed to purchase the railroad operations of Rail Management Corporation (RMC). G&W will pay $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. [23] [24]

- Canadian Pacific Railway commemorates the contributions of Chinese railroad workers who helped build the railroad by renaming an interchange in Kamloops, British Columbia, after one such worker, Cheng Ging Butt. The interchange, just east of the station in Kamloops is officially named Cheng Interchange. [25]
- Alaska Railroad is awarded a $24.8 million federal grant to replace aging ties and bridges along the railroad's mainline, install new track at a new intermodal facility in Fairbanks and upgrade about 30 miles (48.2 km) of track from jointed to continuous welded rail. The railroad received a second grant of $14 million to fund preliminary engineering and environmental studies on an 80 mile (128.7 km) extension to Eielson Air Force Base near North Pole, Alaska. [26]

- Iraqi State Television reports that a new railroad connection between Iran and Iraq will be built. The railroad is planned to connect Khorramshahr, Iran, to Basra, Iraq, and another connection is planned for a route between Kermanshah, Iran, and the Iraqi province of Diala. Transportation officials hope eventually to connect to Turkey and Syria. [27]

- Bombardier announces that it was awarded contracts to build 78 new double decker coaches and nine electric locomotives for Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LNVG) in Germany as well as 20 new eight-car high speed train sets for China (in addition to the 20 already on order). The new equipment for both orders will be delivered between May 2006 and December 2007. [28] [29]