1997 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1997.

Events

January events

• January 6 - Full freight and passenger service is restored through the Channel Tunnel, just short of two months after a devastating fire.

April events

• April 25 - Construction begins on Phase II of Manchester Metrolink in Manchester, England.

May events

• May 10 - Amtrak ceases operations of the Chicago-Los Angeles Desert Wind passenger train.
• May 11 - The New York and Atlantic Railway takes over operations of the Long Island Rail Road's freight services.
• May - Kansas City Southern acquires the Gateway Western Railway and begins operating it as a subsidiary railroad.

September events

• September 3 - Union Pacific Railroad and the United States Federal Railroad Administration introduce the Safety Assurance Compliance Process. (UP)
• September 19 - In the Southall rail crash, the 1032 Great Western Intercity passenger train from Swansea to London Paddington, operating with a defective Automatic Warning System indicator passes a red signal (SPAD) and collides with a freight train leaving its depot, shortly before 1320 local time.
• September 20 - RaiLink Southern Ontario begins operations on the former Canadian National Railway Hagersville subdivision between Nanticoke and Brantford.

December events

• December - Illinois RailNet is formed.

Unknown date events

• The Ballard Terminal Railroad is formed to handle freight traffic around Ballard, Seattle, Washington.
• The Beijing-Kowloon Through Train and the Shanghai-Kowloon Through Train starts services.

Deaths

References

• Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 16, 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history. Retrieved September 19, 2005.
• (February 2002), Flags fall in corporate shuffles, Trains Magazine, p. 17.
• Skeats, William J. (April/May/June 2005), "The New York & Atlantic Railway", The Railroad Press (65), p. 32.
• Union Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad Chronological History. Retrieved September 3, 2005