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January 2006 in rail transport

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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in January 2006.

Events

January 1
  • - David R. Goode, chairman of Norfolk Southern retires.
  • - BNSF Railway starts adding fuel surcharges based on mileage to all shipments made on the railroad.
  • - James R. Young succeeds Richard K. Davidson as president and CEO of Union Pacific Corporation, parent company of Union Pacific Railroad; Young has been president of the railroad since 2004 and will remain in that position.
  • - NJ Transit takes over Clocker service from Amtrak.
    • January 3
  • - Comboios de Portugal (CP), the national rail carrier of Portugal, places an order with Siemens AG for 15 new locomotives to replace 25 locomotives that were originally built in the 1950s. The contract is valued at €70 million ($83 million) with an option for the railroad to purchase 10 more locomotives, which would bring the total value of the contract to €100 million ($118 million). All of the new locomotives will be easily adaptable to Portugal's proposed high-speed rail lines by replacing the locomotives' wheels. Siemens expects to deliver the new locomotives beginning in 2008.
  • - Officials with the Virginia and Truckee Railroad (V&T) in Nevada hold a "silver spike" ceremony in Carson City to commemorate the completion of two miles of track near Gold Hill. The construction, completed in September 2005, is part of an effort to restore the V&T's mainline from Virginia City to Carson City for heritage railway operations. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev), who was instrumental in securing $10 million in federal funding for the project, and Nevada Lieutenant Governor Lorraine Hunt, who secured an additional $1 million in state funding for the project, both spoke at the ceremony. It is estimated that completion of the line from Gold Hill to Carson City will cost nearly $40 million, and it is hoped that the line, which was originally abandoned in 1938, will be completed and operational once again by December 2009.
    • January 5
  • - Railway workers across India begin voting on whether or not to hold a strike against Indian Railways in February. The union's demands center around pay scales, pensions, and private investment into the railway. A Northern Railway Mazdoor Union spokesperson stated that the decision to hold the strike vote was made at the recent All India Railwaymen's Union convention in Mumbai; Western Railway Mazdoor Sangh union members protested at the convention by burning an effigy of Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Voting is scheduled to conclude on January 8, and the vote count, which is expected to begin on January 9, will be monitored by external observers.
    • January 6
  • - China's Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun announces details of a 160 billion yuan ($20 billion) plan for railway construction there in the coming year. The ministry expects to begin construction on as many as 87 new railway projects in 2006, including thirteen new express passenger train routes and opening new electrified lines. The plan also includes the acceleration of eleven express passenger route projects already under construction.
  • - Mikolaj Segien, CEO of Szybka Kolej Miejska (SKM), the rapid transit carrier in Poland's Tricity area (around Gdańsk), announces that Connex's bid to purchase the system has been rejected. Polskie Koleje Państwowe (PKP), the state railway operator which owns SKM, began seeking bids in 2003 to privatise the railroad, but after two years of searching and requesting bids, only Connex tendered an offer. The Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported in December that Connex's bid did not meet PKP's expectations for the sale.
    • January 9
  • - Cuba takes delivery of twelve new locomotives and 80 out of an ordered 1,000 new buses from Chinese manufacturers. The new locomotives are rated at 2,500 hp and are the most modern and efficient of any locomotives in use on the island's railways. The combined order is estimated to be worth more than $100 million.
  • - The Chinese International Fund Limited announces it will fund repairs to Angola's 1,300 km (810 mi) railway connection from Benguela to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The repairs, which are estimated to cost approximately $300 million, are expected to be completed in August 2007. Currently, only about 50 km (31 mi) around Benguela are operational for commuter services in the city; the rest of the line was almost completely destroyed in Angola's civil war.
    • January 10
  • - Northern Railways in India completes operational testing of new motive power and formally applies for commercial operating certificates on the railway's first locomotives to consume compressed natural gas. Certificate applications are pending with the Explosives Research and Development Laboratory and Indian Railways' Research Design and Standards Organization; Northern Railways plans to use the new locomotives, which are converted diesel multiple units, to power four-coach trains on Delhi's commuter network. Railway management hopes that the technology will help save the railway money and reduce harmful emissions on existing dieselized routes and that it could be an alternative to reduce costs on lines that have not been electrified.
    • January 12
  • - New airport-style security screening devices begin a four-week trial operation on London Paddington station's Heathrow Express platforms. The devices include a millimeter wave scanner and baggage screener. Passengers will be randomly selected to take part in the security screening trial which is expected to take about 80 seconds per passenger. Other London Underground and mainline stations are expected to start similar trials soon, as outlined by Transport Secretary Alistair Darling in 2005, but which stations will be involved has not been announced.
    • January 13
  • - Roos Diatmoko, president of Indonesia's railroad car manufacturing firm Industri Kereta Api (Inka), announces that the state railways of Thailand, Bangladesh and Sudan each have made substantial orders of new cars from the firm. The order for Bangladesh includes 50 cars valued at $13 million, while Sudan's order includes 320 cars valued at $38 million. Thailand's order for 1,122 container cars was the largest of the three; the total value of Thailand's order was not specified.
    • January 19
  • - RailAmerica announces that it has sold its holdings in Alberta to Canadian National Railway (CN) for $22 million. The sale includes the Central Western Railway (21 miles of track in central Alberta), Lakeland and Waterways Railway (120 miles from Boyle to Edmonton and O'Morrow) and the Mackenzie Northern Railway (600 miles from Smith to Hay River, Northwest Territories), and a stipulation that RailAmerica will receive up to an additional $3.4 million from CN depending on future business development along the three railroad routes. CN already interchanges with the three railroads (which collectively moved approximately 50,000 carloads of freight in 2005) at Munson, Edmonton and Smith, respectively.
  • - About 160,000 passengers are delayed as more than 20 trains leaving Beijing are suspended due to heavy snowfalls on the Beijing-Guangzhou and Lianyungang-Lanzhou lines. The snow began falling at about 6:00 PM on January 18 and continued through the next day; Beijing West Railway Station initiated emergency procedures after 100,000 passengers were delayed. The railroad and municipal government have opened a temporary joint command center to help direct passengers to food and shelter during their delays; railroad and municipal police have been called in for crowd control. The railway is experiencing a travel rush as a larger than usual number of people are travelling for the upcoming Lunar new year celebrations, which will fall on January 29 this year.
  • - BNSF Railway and Canadian National Railway (CN) announce agreements to exchange operating rights over segments of each other's routes. BNSF is granting CN control over 12 miles of track in Vancouver, British Columbia, which allows CN to access coastline industries and former BC Rail trackage. In return, CN is granting BNSF control over Corwith Tower interlocking in Chicago, Illinois, trackage rights on 30 miles of CN track between Corwith and Joliet, Illinois, and trackage rights on CN mainlines between southern Illinois and Memphis, Tennessee, as well as transferring control of CN's Memphis interlocking to BNSF; as a result BNSF will be able to route its trains efficiently between Chicago and the United States Gulf Coast region.
  • - The first passenger car to operate on the Chicago 'L' system in 1893 is transported to its new display location at the Chicago History Museum. Passengers were allowed to ride from the Loop to Hyde Park station for 5 cents to attend the World's Columbian Exposition upon the line's opening. The car, known as CTA 1, was cosmetically restored into its 1893 appearance before being transported to the museum where it was lifted and inserted into an opening through the museum's second floor wall. The car's interior features include mahogany and rattan seats and etched glass windows. CTA 1 joins Pioneer, the first locomotive to operate in Chicago; a redesigned exhibit space to showcase the car and locomotive is scheduled to open on September 30, 2006.
    • January 21
  • - R. P. Bhatnagar, acting president of National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR), announces that India's railway employees will join the nationwide strike action scheduled for March 1. In making the announcement, Bhatnagar stated that the union had sought input from the Prime Minister's office for the past six months; he estimated that 1,500,000 employees are expected to participate in the strike.
    • January 23
  • - Bioče train disaster - A passenger train derails and plunges into a steep river canyon near Podgorica, Serbia and Montenegro killing at least 44 and injuring close to 200. At about 4PM the four-car train derailed near Bioce, a small village nearly fifteen kilometers northeast of Podgorica as it was emerging from a tunnel above the river Morača. Many of the victims were children returning from a ski trip. "The accident occurred because of a failure of the train's braking system," said Interior Minister Jusuf Kalomperovic.
  • - Railway police in Italy begin using Segway scooters within train station areas for regular security patrols of the railway platforms and passenger areas. Using them, officers are able to stand 25 cm (10 in) above the platform deck, which enables them to see more of the platform areas and makes them more visible to would-be offenders. The scooters, which can travel up to 20 km/h (12.4 mph) are custom painted in the official blue and white livery of the railway police, and enhancements are undergoing development that would let officers use them to travel over bumpy ground to increase the patrollable areas. Segways are in use at 15 of the nation's larger stations, and more stations in Rome, Naples and other major cities are expected to begin using them by the end of January.
    • January 24
  • - BNSF Railway announces a $2.4 billion program of infrastructure upgrades for 2006. The upgrade program will include: double- and triple-tracking 40 miles (64 km) of track and a second mainline track through New Mexico's Abo Canyon on the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway transcontinental line; expanding the Lincoln, Nebraska, classification yard and double- and triple-tracking 50 miles (80 km) of track in Wyoming's Powder River Basin region; expansions at eight of the railroad's larger intermodal facilities, and extending many sidings and expanding and improving refueling facilities. In making the announcement, BNSF chairman Matthew K. Rose cited improvements in the company's return on invested capital, and expressed hope for continued improvement.
    • January 26
  • - The Greenbrier Companies announces that it was awarded its largest new railroad car order to date, a contract estimated at $800 million. The order, for an undisclosed customer, includes 13,000 car units, of which 7,400 are articulated doublestack container cars; the rest of the order includes mostly covered hoppers as well as centerbeam flatcars. 5,300 of the new cars are scheduled to be delivered in 2006 and 2007, and the remainder are to be delivered by 2010.
    • January 27
  • - England's Office of Rail Regulation gives provisional approval to Grand Central's proposal to operate a new passenger train service between London King's Cross and Sunderland. The new service, expected to begin in 2007, would consist of four trains per day in both directions. The company plans to use a fleet of five of Bombardier Transportation's five-carriage Class 222 diesel electric multiple unit 125 mph (200 km/h) trains, similar to those already in use by Hull Trains and Midland Mainline, and related to the Class 220/221 units used by Virgin CrossCountry.
    • January 30
  • - Chinese railway officials announce that about 5 million more passengers used rail transport during the Spring Festival season this year compared to 2005. The daily ridership average was increased by about 370,000 passengers for the two weeks since the season began. The railway added over 6,600 more trains to handle the rush this year, an increase of nearly 1,000 over the number of trains added in 2005 for that year's festival season. The railway expects a second rush of passengers as the holiday season ends on January 31.
  • - Global Railway Industries Ltd. (GRI) announces that it has completed the sale of its railroad car parts manufacturing company, YSD Industries' boxcar door and roof and freight car running board product lines and associated inventories. YSD had ceased production in mid December 2005, GRI announced the closure on October 17, 2005. The door and roof product lines and inventories were purchased by The Greenbrier Companies, while the running board product line and inventory were purchased by Miller Metals Service; the purchase prices have not been announced.
    • January 31
  • - Australia's FreightLink announces that it will begin operating intermodal container trains in conjunction with Hai Win Shipping between Adelaide and Darwin, forming a land bridge between Melbourne and Asia. Hai Win Shipping carries the containers by ship between Darwin and Shanghai while FreightLink carries them by rail between Darwin and Adelaide. FreightLink has already been operating trains between Melbourne and Adelaide.

    • References

    January 2006 in rail transport Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA