2008 in rail transport
This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 2008.
| Years in rail transport |
| Timeline of railway history |
Events
February events
- February 27
– Official opening of Santo Domingo Metro.
– National Express changes the name of the railway operating company one to National Express East Anglia as part of a company-wide rebranding exercise.[1][2]
March events
March 9 – Sprinter starts service between Oceanside and Escondido, California,[3] reinstating passenger service on the Escondido branch line.
March 15 – The Osaka Higashi Line is scheduled to open in Osaka, Japan; the opening was originally scheduled for 2006, but delayed due to problems acquiring land.- March 27 – Heathrow Terminal 5 station opens in London.
- March 30 – Yokohama Municipal Subway's Green Line is opened for regular operations.
– Kolkata Metro is extended from Tollygunge station to Pranabnagar station.
April events
- April 1 – The Miki Railway Miki Line in Japan, which connected Yakujin Station in Kakogawa and Miki Station in Miki, is closed.
- April 26 – FrontRunner, a new commuter rail service, begins running in Utah.
- April 28 – Wrexham & Shropshire begin to run passenger services between London Marylebone station, the West Midlands, Shropshire and north-east Wales.[4][5][6]
CRH3 unit for Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway
June events
- June 2 – An unexploded bomb from World War II is found near where the District and Hammersmith & City lines cross the Prescott Channel, not far from Bromley-by-Bow tube station, causing disruption to trains.[7]
- June 2–6 – AfricaRail 2008 Conference.[8]
July events
August events
- August 1
– China officially opens the Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway line, the first in the world regularly to host trains traveling up to 350 km/h (220 mph).[9][10][11]- – LNER-design Peppercorn Class A1 60163 Tornado makes first official move under its own steam, the first main line steam locomotive built in Britain since 1960.[12]
Tornado, August 2008
November events
- November – Voter approval of Measure M in Los Angeles County, California, commits additional tax dollars to transit projects.
December events
- December 27 – The first section of the new Valley Metro Rail system, part of Valley Metro in Phoenix, Arizona, opened.[13][14][15]
Summer events
- – The project to rebuild and upgrade Guiyang Southern Station to more than double its capacity is expected to be completed.[16]
Unknown date events
- – Indian Railways expects to complete the conversion of its electrified section in Mumbai from a 1,500 volt DC system to 25,000 volts AC; this will make the Mumbai section's electrification consistent with the rest of Indian Railways' network.
– Vietnam expects to complete construction on the Hanoi–Lào Cai railway line upgrade.[17]
– The city of Saint Petersburg, Russia, will begin construction of a new intercity light railway beginning with a 26.5 km (16.5 mi) section between Baltiyskaya Zhemchuzhina and the Obukhovo metro station.[18]
Accidents
- April 28 – 2008 Shandong train collision: Sixty-six people are killed and almost 250 injured when a passenger train from Beijing careers off the rails and slams into another train in eastern China. The rail accident, the worst in China in more than a decade, happens near the city of Zibo in Shandong province.
August 8 – 2008 Studénka train wreck: A EuroCity train en route to Prague strikes a part of a motorway bridge that has fallen onto the track near Studénka station and derails, killing 8 people and injuring 64 others.- September 12 – 2008 Chatsworth train collision: A Metrolink commuter train, having passed a signal at danger, collides head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles, killing 25 and injuring 130.[19]
Deaths
March deaths
- March 16 – John Shedd Reed, president of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 1967-1986 (born 1917).[20][21]
Industry awards
Japan
- Awards presented by the Japan Railfan Club
- 2008 Blue Ribbon Award: JR Central & JR West N700 Series Shinkansen
- 2008 Laurel Prize: JR East/Sendai Airport Transit E721 series/SAT721 EMU and JR East KiHa E200 DMU
References
- "'one' Railway to vanish as National Express begins major rebranding exercise" (PDF). Railway Herald. 2007-11-17. p. Page 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-11-27. Retrieved 2007-11-17.
- Clinnick, Richard (March 12–25, 2008). "NX ditches 'one' brand with East Anglian overhaul promise". Rail. 587: 12–13.
- Burge, Michael (March 10, 2008). "Passenger train sprints into service". U-T San Diego. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
- "Setback for new Wrexham service". Railway Magazine. 153 (1273): 12. May 2007.
- "New direct rail service launches this April". Wrexham & Shropshire. Archived from the original on June 1, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
- Clinnick, Richard (May 7–20, 2008). "40 years on – Wrexham and Shropshire takes to the rails". Rail. 591: 6–7.
- "Wartime bomb find disrupts Tube". BBC News. 2 June 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
- "Africa Rail 2008 - programme". Archived from the original on 2008-07-06. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- "China launches high-speed train". BBC News. 2008-08-01. Archived from the original on 2 August 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
- "China opens Beijing-Tianjin railway one week ahead of Olympics". Xinhua. 2008-08-01. Archived from the original on 2008-08-06. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
- Fletcher, Hannah (2008-08-01). "China inaugurates 220mph fastest rail service in world in time for Olympics". Times Online. London. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
- "A1 Steam Locomotive Trust". Retrieved 2008-08-27.
- Associated Press (reprinted by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, February 16, 2005), Phoenix begins work on light rail Archived 2005-05-14 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 16, 2005.
- Valley Metro. "Construction schedule". Archived from the original on 2006-09-23. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
- Holstege, Sean (2006-06-30). "Plan has light rail on track". Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
- CRI Online (December 28, 2005), Building of Railway Hub in SW China Started. Retrieved December 29, 2005. Archived January 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- Xinhua (September 25, 2005), France to fund Vietnam in upgrading busiest railway route. Retrieved September 27, 2005.
- "Construction of intercity light railway to begin in St Pete in 2008". ITAR-TASS. 2007-03-06. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-06.
- "Human error led to fatal train collision, spokeswoman says". CNN. 2008-09-14. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- "John Shedd Reed, rail executive". San Jose Mercury News. Associated Press. 2008-03-17. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
- Shah, Tina (2008-03-17). "John Shedd Reed, 1917 - 2008". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
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