1969 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1969.

Events

January events

• January 1
  • As ordered by court, Penn Central takes over the assets and operations of the bankrupt New York, New Haven and Hartford ("New Haven") for $22 million; new passenger timetables over the new PC New Haven Region take effect February 2.
  • The Pullman Company is dissolved, having ceased to operate sleeping car services in the United States.

• January 4 – The
  PATCO Hi-Speedline, in southeastern Pennsylvania
  , opens.
• January 5 – Last trains over the
  Waverley Route from Edinburgh in Scotland to Carlisle in England.^[1]

• February 16 – Căile Ferate Române, in Romania, completes its systemwide electrification project.

March events

• March 7 – The
  Victoria, by the Queen.^[2]

• April 5 – The
  South Devon Railway at Buckfastleigh
  in England, reopens as a preserved steam railway, the Dart Valley Railway.

• May 5 – The Lewes-Uckfield (or
  Beeching Axe
  in East Sussex, England.
• May 6 – The
  Ashland/63rd Terminal
  , replacing the former Loomis terminal.
• May 7 – A northbound
  Morpeth rail crash
  (6 killed).
• May – Union Pacific Railroad takes delivery of General Motors Electro-Motive Division EMD DDA40X, the most powerful and largest diesel locomotive to date.

June events

• June – Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, on the United States Atlantic coast, discontinues the Silver Comet passenger train service.
• June 1 – The
  break-of-gauge at the Spanish–French
  border.

• November 3 –
  Southern Belle passenger train service between Kansas City, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, makes its final run.^[3][4]
• November 29 – Opening of
  East–West rail corridor, Australia, on standard gauge between Sydney and Perth.^[5]

• December 6 – The
  Dobutsuen-mae.^[6]
• December 12 – First section of RER suburban rail network in Paris opened.
• December 15 (00:50) – The last train departs Paris Gare de la Bastille,^[7] hauled by SNCF class 141TB-432^[8] on the Ligne de Vincennes to Boissy-Saint-Léger. The Gare de la Bastille is the last terminus in Paris operated entirely by steam locomotives.^[9]
• December 20 – The Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line is opened between Kita-Senju and Ōtemachi stations.

Unknown date events

• ALCO ceases new diesel locomotive manufacturing.
• The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway operates the last freight train on its subsidiary Grand Canyon Railway.^[10]
• Rail transport in Cambodia: The line from Phnom Penh to the southern port city of Sihanoukville is completed.

Accidents

Deaths

• May 2 – Donald Gordon, president of Canadian National Railway 1950–1966, dies (b. 1901).

References