April 2005 in rail transport

2004, 2005, 2006

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

[edit] April events

April 4
- East Japan Railway Company and Tokyo Waterfront Area Rapid Transit introduce women-only passenger cars in trains on the Saikyo and Rinkai Lines to deter groping. [2]
- The sale of General Motors Electro-Motive Division to Greenbriar Equity Group and Berkshire Partners is completed; the new company is known as Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc. (EMD). [3]

April 11 - Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signs into law a bonding bill for the Northstar Corridor Development Authority in Minneapolis worth $866 million.
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. [4]
April 14 - Nineteen cars of a southbound Union Pacific train operating on Canadian National Railway tracks south of Superior, Wisconsin, derail and cause a forest fire near Solon Springs, Wisconsin. [5]
April 15
- Amtrak cancels all Acela Express trains between Washington, DC, New York City and Boston as cracks are found in the brakes on a majority of the trainsets' coaches. [6] [7]
- SEPTA begins construction on an $85 million project to replace and upgrade signal, communications and track switch equipment between its Wayne Junction and Glenside stations
April 16 - Alaska Railroad opens its new headquarters building and operations center in Anchorage, Alaska. [8]

April 18 - Vadodara rail collision between passenger train and stationary freight train kills 18.
April 20 - UTA TRAX, in Salt Lake City, Utah, begins construction of its 900 South Station, the railroad's first new station in six years; this is the first station for the railroad that is to be built in a mainly residential area.
April 21 - At least 17 people are killed and 78 injured in a collision between a passenger train and stationary goods train in western India.
April 23 - Los Angeles Metrolink opens a new station in Palmdale on the system's Antelope Valley line. [9]

April 25 - A JR West commuter train derails and strikes an apartment building in Amagasaki, Hyogo, Japan, killing 106 and injuring more than 460 others; see Amagasaki rail crash.
April 28
- The English, Welsh and Scottish Railway acquires the assets of Probotec Limited, the leading manufacturer of railroad freight car suspension systems in Europe. [10]
- Swiss engineers blast through the last section of rock on the first bore of the Loetschberg base tunnel project under the Alps. [11] See also Swiss finish drilling world's longest overland tunnel
April 30 - The English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) was expected to close a deal that will allow the railway to operate freight trains through the Channel Tunnel; such operations would make EWS one of the first non-governmental companies to operate trains on France's national rail network.[12]