2002 in rail transport

2001, 2002, 2003

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 2002.

[edit] Events

January - The Muskingum Electric Railroad, one of only six heavy freight electric railroads in the United States, closes.
January 2 - The Iowa Interstate Railroad operates its first unit coal train over the former Milwaukee Road mainline through Amana, Iowa.

April - United States President George W. Bush appoints David L. Gunn to head Amtrak.
April - David Laney joins the Board of Directors for Amtrak.
April 4 - General Motors Electro-Motive Division and Porterbrook are awarded a contract to build new diesel locomotives for the first open access rail freight carrier in Belgium.
April 29 - The first Pendolino train, operated by Virgin Trains, arrives at Euston Station in London, England.

May - The Metrolink 91 Line opens for service between Los Angeles and Riverside, California.
May 2 - An eastbound Canadian National train collides with a trailer near Firmdale, Manitoba, Canada; about 20 cars carrying plastic pellets, benzene, glycol and hexane catch fire, forcing the evacuation of nearly 200 local residents.
May 10 - The Potters Bar rail crash occurs at Potters Bar, north of London, England, when a northbound passenger train derails at high speed, killing seven and seriously injuring another eleven.
May 13 - The Shramjivi Express, travelling from New Delhi to Patna, India, strikes a sabotaged section of rail and derails at Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, killing 12 people. See: Jaunpur train crash.

June 12 - The Talgo XXI trainset sets the land speed record for railed vehicles with diesel power at 256.38 km/h (159.3 mph).
June 24 - In the Igandu train disaster, a large passenger train in Tanzania with over 1,200 people on board rolls backwards down a hill into a stationary goods train, killing 281 people.

July 1 - Norges Statsbaner is privatised under the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications.
July 1 - The railroad dining car catering services of Mitropa, which was founded in 1916, are handed over to DB Reise & Touristik AG, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn.
July 4 - General Motors Electro-Motive Division announces that it will build new locomotives for HSBC Rail; the locomotives will be leased by CargoNet for use in Norway north of the Arctic Circle and are expected to enter service after February 2003.
July 26 - The German manufacturer of rail equipment, Vossloh, announces the acquisition of the French company Cogifer.
July 30 - The Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad takes over operations from the defunct I&M Rail Link in the north central United States. [1]

August 1 - Deutsche Bahn opens the high-speed line between Frankfurt and Cologne, Germany.

September 10 - At least 130 people are killed in the Rafiganj rail disaster in India, where a passenger train derails on a bridge and falls into a river. Naxalite sabotage is suspected.

December - National Express Group hands back it's M>Train, M>Tram and V/Line public transport franchises in Victoria, Australia to the state government due to financial instability.
December - The Tōhoku Shinkansen in Japan is extended from Morioka to Hachinohe.
December 15 - All first-class cars on the TGV become non-smoking cars.
December 27 - The first X'Trapolis train enters service with Connex in Melbourne, Australia.

Some of the events listed here were translated from 2003 dans les chemins de fer, the equivalent French-language Wikipedia article.
Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 16 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history. Retrieved October 31 2005.
Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad (July 29 2002), IMRL Sale Final; IC&E Begins Operations Tomorrow. Retrieved April 2 2005.
General Motors Electro-Motive Division (April 4 2002), EMD and Porterbrook Win Contract For First Belgian Private Railway. Retrieved April 13 2005.
General Motors Electro-Motive Division (July 4 2002), EMD to provide locomotives to Norway. Retrieved April 13 2005.
(May 2002), Iowa Interstate operates first coal train to Cedar Rapids, Trains Magazine, p. 22.
Reh, Vincent (February 2002), Muskingum Electric Railroad just about done, Trains Magazine, p. 22-23.