July 2005 in rail transport

12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

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

Events

July 1
July 4
  • United Kingdom - EWS is presented with the Award for Innovation from International Freighting Weekly for the railroad's design of a new parcel cage it is using between the West Midlands and central Scotland. The new cages are collapsible and replace the wooden pallets and shrink wrap that the railroad was using to ship the goods. Use of the new cages enabled EWS to win a key contract from DHL to carry its cargo by rail. (EWS)
July 5
July 7
July 11
  • United States - Amtrak resumes limited Acela Express service with four daily departures each from New York and Washington, DC. Two departures serve each terminal in the morning, while two more serve each terminal in the afternoon. In order to provide reliable schedules, the returning Acela trainsets are replacing existing Metroliner trainsets already in service. (Amtrak)
July 13
  • Pakistan - A passenger train stopped at the Ghotki, Pakistan, railway station was hit from behind by a train that missed a signal. The derailed cars were subsequently hit by a third train, resulting in a total of seventeen wrecked train cars, which carried over 3,000 passengers. More than 100 people are dead from the Ghotki rail crash. Pakistani railroad officials have called this the worst railroad accident there in 15 years. (Bloomberg) (Xinhua) (AP/MSNBC)
July 14
  • Russia - Russian military civil engineers test a new pontoon bridge for railroad use across the Volga River. The bridge was able to carry a train consisting of two diesel locomotives and about twenty cars weighing 3,000 metric tons in total while sinking only 0.92 metres; subsequent tests with trains hauling tanks, weighing 42.5 metric tons each, showed the bridge sinking by 50 centimetres or less. The military have proclaimed the tests a success and foresee both combat and civilian uses for the bridge technology. (RIA Novosti)
July 18
  • United States - Officials for New York state and New York City announce that they have selected the contractors to build a new structure for the existing Penn Station, whose original building was razed in 1963. The new station building, budgeted at $818 million, will replace the James Farley Post Office building erected in 1913, while preserving the building's facade, and will be named Daniel Patrick Moynihan Station in honor of the late senator who worked to make the idea a reality. (NYC Daily News) (Trains)
July 21
July 22
  • Russia - Heavy rains in Irkutsk damage and washout part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Trains along the route are restricted to 40 km/h (25 mph) through the affected region. Although exact estimates are not available on when service will return to normal, railroad officials are confident that repairs to the damaged track will be quick. (RIA Novosti)
  • United States The U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska issues a ruling against Union Pacific Railroad (UP) stating that the railroad's denial of health insurance prescription drug coverage for contraceptives violated Title VII of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination on the basis of race or gender. UP's claim was that since pregnancy is a normal human condition, contraceptive medications were not medically necessary. The court ruled against the railroad because it felt the railroad was treating the medical care needed to prevent a pregnancy differently than it was treating medical care to prevent other conditions that "are no greater threat to employees' health than is pregnancy." (Business Wire)
July 23
July 25
July 26
July 27
  • Canada - Heavy rains in northern Manitoba, Canada, cause washouts on the Hudson Bay Railway. Via Rail trains 290 and 291 which operate over the HBR between The Pas and Pukatawagan are suspended while repairs commence. HBR expects the line to reopen on August 4, 2005. (Via)
July 28
July 30
  • United States - Union Pacific Railroad unveils two new EMD SD70ACe locomotives with paint schemes inspired by the railroad's predecessors. Union Pacific 1982 received a two-tone blue paint scheme reminiscent of the Missouri Pacific Railroad's "Jenks blue" paint, and Union Pacific 1983 received a green and silver paint scheme inspired by the last paint scheme of the Western Pacific Railroad; the locomotive road numbers coincide with the years that the two railroads were absorbed into UP. Reports indicate that four more locomotives will be painted in schemes inspired by other UP predecessor railroads; a UP press release indicates that these other schemes will be inspired from Southern Pacific Railroad, Chicago and North Western Railway, Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. (Trainboard) (UP)
July 31
  • China - Shenyang, China: Northbound train K127 from Xi'an to Changchun passes a sabotaged railway signal and collides with a freight train, killing five of the passenger train's passengers. Officials state that some wiring was stolen from a nearby signal box causing the signal to malfunction. (Trains)

References