July 2005 in rail transport

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

Events

July 1

• - Indian Railways is expected to inaugurate two new Shatabdi Express passenger trains, one between Chennai and Bangalore and a new Jan-Shatabdi Express between Madgaon and Mangalore.

July 4

• - 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

• - Kansas City Southern Railway names Francisco Javier Rion as the new CEO, succeeding interim CEO Vicente Corta Fernandez, for its subsidiary Grupo Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana. (Business Journal of KC) (KCS Railway)

July 7

• 
  - Three bombs explode in the London Underground killing at least 35 people. Explosions occurred between the Aldgate East and Liverpool Street stations, between King's Cross St Pancras and Russell Square, and at Edgware Road. A further bomb on a bus in Tavistock Square killed 13 people. A statement claiming responsibility was posted to a website known to be operated by associates of Al Qaeda.

July 11

• - 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

• - 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

• - 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

• - 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

• 
  - A second series of explosions occur on the London Underground just two weeks after the previous attacks. Several tube lines are closed temporarily, and National Rail Services to and from London St. Pancras have been terminated. Initial reports indicate fewer casualties than the previous incident, and that one or more arrests have been made in connection with the new incidents.
• - Union Pacific 844, the last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific Railroad, makes a series of break-in runs after the most extensive overhaul of an operating steam locomotive in the United States since the 1950s. For these first runs, the locomotive is paired with Union Pacific 3985 (currently the largest operable steam locomotive in the world) on a double-header train out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The locomotive's first official run is scheduled to occur on July 27 on a run between Cheyenne and Omaha, Nebraska. (UP) (Trainboard).
• - Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell presides over and cuts the ribbon for the opening ceremony on Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad's new branch to Homer City, Pennsylvania. The new branch, which cuts through part of Indiana University of Pennsylvania's campus, allows the railroad to deliver coal to the Edison Mission Energy generator there. University president Tony Atwater and Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Samuel H. Smith (who also serves on the university Council of Trustees) also spoke at the ceremony. (The Penn Online)

July 22

• - 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)
• 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

• 
  - Wisconsin and Southern Railroad (WSOR), which was named Regional Railroad of the Year for 2001, celebrates its 25th year of operations with an "open house" at the railroad's yard in Madison, Wisconsin. Free rides are given using WSOR's three former Chicago and North Western Railway bilevel coaches between Madison and a point near Waunakee, and railroad equipment, including specially painted EMD SD40-2 number 4025, is available for viewing by the public. Soo Line 1003, a restored 2-8-2 steam locomotive of the Soo Line Railroad provides cab rides between the yard and Monona Terrace in downtown Madison. (WSOR)

July 25

• - Norfolk Southern (NS) breaks ground on the new Rickenbacker Intermodal Facility in Columbus, Ohio. The new facility is part of NS's Heartland Corridor project to move freight between the Eastern and Central United States. The ceremony is attended by Charles W. Moorman (NS president), Ohio Representatives David L. Hobson, Deborah Pryce, and Patrick J. Tiberi, and Senators R. Michael DeWine and George V. Voinovich as well as officials from the city of Columbus. (NS)

July 26

• - SNCF awards a pair of contracts worth €550 million to Alstom for new TGV Duplex (double-decker) trainsets. 28 of the new trains will be used in service on the TGV Méditerranée line between Paris and Marseille, while 8 more new trains will be used in a new TGV Est service from Paris through Luxembourg, southwest Germany, and Switzerland beginning in 2007. (Alstom) (Trains News Wire)

July 27

• - 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

• - Canadian Pacific Railway identifies ten branch lines that currently receive little or no rail traffic as candidates for abandonment. The branches to be closed include 80 miles of track in Manitoba, 243 miles in Saskatchewan and 90 miles in Alberta. In accordance with the Canada Transportation Act, the lines will be offered for sale to new rail operators, but will be closed if no new operators are identified. (CPR)
• - 2005 Jaunpur train bombing - An explosion destroys a carriage of an express train near the town of Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, killing 13 people.

July 30

• - 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

• - 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

• Alstom (July 26, 2005), ALSTOM to supply 28 TGV trainsets and 8 TGV power cars to SNCF worth 550 million euros. Retrieved July 27, 2005.
• Amtrak (July 11, 2005), Acela Express Returns to Service. Retrieved July 13, 2005.
• Associated Press (July 13, 2005), 3 trains collide in Pakistan; 112 dead. Retrieved July 13, 2005.
• Bloomberg.com: Asia (July 13, 2005), Pakistan Triple-Train Crash Leaves 109 People Dead. Retrieved July 13, 2005.
• The Business Journal of Kansas City (July 5, 2005), KC Southern's Mexican railroad names new CEO. Retrieved July 6, 2005.
• Business Wire (July 25, 2005), Women Win Nationwide Sex Discrimination Case Against Union Pacific; Railroad's Refusal to Cover Contraception in Worker Health Plans Violates Law. Retrieved July 25, 2005.
• Canadian Pacific Railway (July 28, 2005), CPR adds 10 low-volume branch lines to CTA Three-Year Plan. Retrieved August 1, 2005.
• Colford, Paul D., New York City Daily News (July 19, 2005), New Penn Station no longer dream. Retrieved July 20, 2005.
• EWS Railway (July 4, 2005), EWS parcel cages win IFW Award for Innovation. Retrieved August 1, 2005.
• Harper, Margaret, The Penn Online (July 27, 2005), Railroad returns: Route ready for transportation of coal to Homer City. Retrieved July 27, 2005.
• Kansas City Southern (July 5, 2005), KCS Announces Appointment of Javier Rión as TFM CEO. Retrieved July 6, 2005.
• Moorman, Charles W., Norfolk Southern (July 25, 2005), Groundbreaking for Rickenbacker Intermodal Facility, Columbus, Ohio - July 25, 2005. Retrieved August 1, 2005.
• RIA Novosti (July 14, 2005), Russian military tests new railroad pontoon bridge. Retrieved July 14, 2005.
• RIA Novosti (July 22, 2005), Train traffic limited on Trans-Siberian railroad. Retrieved July 22, 2005.
• Trainboard.com (July 21, 2005), UP offers GPS tracking of steam excursions. Retrieved July 25, 2005. Includes photos of UP 844 break-in runs on July 21.
• Trainboard.com (July 2005), UP painting several engines in Fallen Flag color schemes. Retrieved August 1, 2005.
• Trains NewsWire (July 26, 2005), Alstom to supply TGV trainsets and power cars to SNCF. Retrieved July 27, 2005.
• Trains NewsWire (August 1, 2005), Chinese passenger train derailment kills 5. Retrieved August 3, 2005.
• Trains NewsWire (July 19, 2005), New York Penn Station design moves forward. Retrieved July 20, 2005.
• Union Pacific Railroad (July 30, 2005), Union Pacific Announces Heritage Series Locomotives. Retrieved August 1, 2005.
• Union Pacific Railroad (July 20, 2005), Union Pacific Railroad's Historic Steam Locomotive No. 844 Coming to Omaha. Retrieved July 23, 2005.
• Via Rail Canada (July 27, 2005), Hudson Bay Railway closes line - Via service form The Pas to Pukatawagan temporarily cancelled. Retrieved August 1, 2005.
• Wisconsin and Southern Railroad (July 2005), Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Celebrates 25 Years. Retrieved August 1, 2005.
• Xinhua (July 13, 2005), Pakistani leaders express deep sorrow over train accident. Retrieved July 13, 2005.