Chronography of railways outside Great Britain�
Page last modified 24/6/2022
See also Railways GB
See also Railways,
socio-economic effects
See also Rail Tunnels
International urban transit
maps, https://www.thetransportpolitic.com/transitexplorer/#12/47.2193/-1.5583
For map of historical development of selected
canals and railways, Netherlands, click here
The �Global Metro� Most
major cities around the world have an underground metro system, known to
Londoners as �the tube�; what would it be like if there was a �global metro�
that linked all the cities that possess their own metro system? See also London
Underground.
US rail map, https://railmaponline.com/
World rail map, current and disused rails etc, https://www.openrailwaymap.org/
World metro maps, detailed plans of stations, http://carto.metro.free.fr/
European railways
Albania.
11/1/1985, The Shkoder(Albania) - Podgorica freight line
opened.
1949, The railway reached the
capital, Tirana.
7/11/1947, The first
railway in Albania opened. It ran from Durres
to Pekinj, 42km.
27/6/1986, The Eisenertz to Vordenberg railway closed. It was
built to carry iron ore from Eisenertz, but foreign ore undercut the mine here.
1/8/1966, The Minitz to St Erhard
line closed.
27/1/1908, Austria announced plans to build a railway south
towards Salonika, to assist trade and extend Austro-Hungarian political
influence.
8/5/1892, Gabor Baross, who developed the
Austro-Hungarian railway system, died in Hungary (born in Trencsen 6/7/1848).
24/8/1867, The Brenner Pass railway, from Italy to Innsbruck,
Austria, opened.
1860, The line from Vienna to
Belgrade opened.
15/5/1854, The Semmering Pass railway, Austria, opened.
1853, The first railway through the Alps, from Vienna to Trieste, opened.
1852, The line from Vienna to
Salzburg opened.
6/7/1848, Gabor Baross, who developed the
Austro-Hungarian railway system, was born in Trencsen (died in Hungary 8/5/1892).
6/1/1838. The first steam railway
line in Austria opened, between Vienna and Wagram via Florisdorf.
7/9/1827, The first railway in Austro-Hungary
opened. This was from Budweis (now Czechia) �to Trojanov, later extended to Linz, using
horse traction.
Belgium
18/9/1957, The railway between Amsterdam and Brussels was
electrified.
1935, The first line in Belgium was electrified;
Brussels to Antwerp.
1911, Construction began on the Brussels Midi line; a 6-track route
through the centre of Brussels, part underground, part elevated, linking the
city�s Nord and Midi termini. However World War One and economic depression
delayed completion until 1938.
5/5/1835. The railway from Brussels to Malines opened (14.5 miles). The first railway in
Belgium. Belgian State railways was the first State-owned railway
company.
Bulgaria
1899, The Sofia to Varna railway opened.
1888, The railway across Bulgaria from Dragoman
via Sofia and Plovdiv to Silvengrad (and on to Istanbul) opened; this routewas used by the Orient Express.
1873, The line from Sarambey to
Philippopolis, and onwards to the Turkish frontier, was built.
1866, The first railway in
Bulgaria opened, from Ruschuk (Ruse) to Varna.
Czechia
1919, Czeckoslovak
Statre Railways was established; re-established in 5/1945.
Denmark, see Map of
Danish railways
1937, The Storstrom railway
bridge was completed.
1927, Danish railways began
replacing steam locomotives with diesel; the process was completed in 1970,when
the last Danish steam train ran.
26/6/1847, The first railway in Denmark opened;
Copenhagen to Roskilde, 31 km. The Altona to Kiel railway, opened
1844, was in Danish territory when built but from 1864 has been in German
territory.
Finland, see Map
of Finnish railways
France see Map of French railways
15/12/2012, The 14�3 km
extension of orbital tram route T3 following the Boulevards des Mar�chaux ring
road around the eastern side of Paris was opened
for revenue service. This trebled the length of T3, which ran for 7�9 km
across the south of Paris from Pont du Garigliano to Porte d�Ivry since 2006,
and added 24 stops.
3/4/2007, A French TGV train set a
new speed record of 356 mph / 573 kph.
18/5/1990. A French TGV attained a
record speed of 515.3 kph.
22/9/1981. The TGV was inaugurated in France. It
ran at 300
kph (186 mph), was a
quarter of a mile long, and set a record speed of 515.3 kph on 18/5/1990. It ran
between Paris and Lyons, and its route was extended to Marseilles in 1983.
20/5/1977, The Orient Express, between Paris and Istanbul,
ran for the last time.
25/9/1976. It was announced that the Orient Express, which had run
between Istanbul and Paris since 1883, was to be withdrawn.
1961, Paris� RER (Reseau Express Regional) railway network was begun.
1946, Louis Armand became President of
the SNCF. He undertook a programme of rationalisation, closing down some 10,000
kilometres of uneconomic lines.
1937, The Paris to Le Mans line was electrified.
31/8/1937, In France, the SNCF (Societe National des Chemins
de fer Francais) was formed. It took over operation of the French railways on
1/1/1938.
12/10/1936, A London to Paris through train service began.
1914, Work on the line from le
Puy to Lalevade d�Ardeche was suspended; it was never resumed.
6/6/1906, Paris Metro Line
5 was inaugurated with a first section from Place d'Italie to the Gare
d'Orleans (today known as Gare d'Austerlitz).
1900, Electrification of the Paris-Orleans line
began.
10/7/1900. The Paris Metro
opened.�
It was designed by Fulgence Bienvenue. The first line ran from
Vincennes to Port Maillot.
1890, France standardised time,
to Paris time, on its railways; previously they had all been set to local time,
as had Britain�s railways until 1880 � see railways, social, 24/10/1858. French
stations had also kept their clocks 5 minutes slow, to provide a margin for
late-running travellers.
1/6/1889, The Orient Express made its first through run from
Paris to Constantinople.
6/10/1883, The Orient Express made its maiden run from Paris to Bucharest,
Romania, in just under 78 hours. The route was extended to
Constantinople, now Istanbul, in 1889.
1/6/1883, The first regular restaurant car service on French railways
began, on the Paris-Caen and Paris-Trouville routes.
1876, The Wagon Lits Company was founded,
taking over 53 sleeping rail cars from an earlier enterprise. From 1889 Wagon
Lit services began in north Africa, in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia.
1867, The railway reached
Lourdes. The number of pilgrims to the site rose rapidly, reaching 100,000 in
the year 1972 alone.
3/1847, The Paris and Rouen railway was extended to Le
Havre.
11/6/1842, France passed the Railway Law Act, stipulating
that all French railways were to be under public ownership, with the State
directing what lines were to be built and their operation. However lines could
be leased to private� operators. A key
element of the plan was the Legrand Star;
all main line railways radiated out from Paris. This proved to be a handicap in the Franco-Prussian War. German
troops could reach the front by multiple routes, whereas all French soldiers
had to travel on one line, Paris to Strasbourg. Worse, recruits from south and
west France all had to be funnelled through Paris, causing major congestion.
19/9/1841. The first railway to cross a frontier was opened between Strasbourg and Basle.
26/8/1837, The Paris to St Germain railway opened.
9/7/1835. The St Etienne to Lyons railway opened to passengers.
3/4/1832, Lyons to Givors railway opened.
1830, The Mulhouse-Tann railway opened.
25/6/1830, The first section of the St Etienne to Lyons railway,
from Givors
to Rive de
Gier, opened. It was
initially worked by both horse and steam. Horse traction ceased on 1/8/1844.
1/10/1828, The horse-drawn St Etienne to Andrezieux railway opened; the first public railway in France. It was extended to Roanne in
1833, and was converted to steam on 1/8/1844.
1779, The first railway in
France was built by Englishman William Wilkinson (1744-1808). It
served an ordnance factory at Indret and ran to the River Loire. It was used
until around 1800.
15/5/1933, Germany inaugurated what was then the fastest
train service in the world, between Berlin and Hamburg, covering 178 miles in
138 minutes, an average speed of 77.4 mph.
5/10/1903, In Berlin, a Siemens electric train reached 125
mph.
15/2/1902. The Berlin underground
railway opened.
1882, Berlin�s stadtbahn railway
m(city railway), 12 km of elevated tracks through Berlin, was opened. One of
its functions was to facilitate troop movements between east and west Prussia.
1879, Prussia began to
nationalise its railways, a process completed by 1914.
17/11/1866, The railway from Oldenburg to Delmenhorst opened;
in July 1867 was extended to Bremen followed, and in September 1866 the section
from Oldenburg to Heppens was completed.
1846, The Berlin to Brandenburg
railway opened.
1843, The Heidelberg
to Karlsruhe railway opened.
19/9/1841. The first railway to cross a frontier was opened between Strasbourg and Basle.
1840, The Magdeburg to
Leipzig line opened.
1839, The first long-distance line in Germany
opened, 121 km from Leipzig to Dresden. In its first year of
operation it carries 412,000 people. Some female passengers were wary of
unwanted attentions from the men whilst the train ran through the dark tunnels.
7/12/1835, The first railway in Germany,
the Ludwigsbahn, opened between Nuremberg and Furth.
14/2/1834, Construction of the first railway in Germany, 7 km
from Nuremberg to Furth, was sanctioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria.
1916,
A 90 kilometre railway was completed linking the Greek railways to the rest of
Europe.
Cyprus
21/10/1905, A 110 km
line of gauge 0.75 metres opened from Famagusta (Cyprus) via Nicosia to
Morphou. It closed on 31/12/1951.
1896,
the Salonika to Constantino[le railway opened; a branch to Burgas, on the Black
Sea, opened in 1898.
1869,
The first railway in Greece opened. It was 10km long and ran
from Atens to the port of Piraeus. It was electrified in 1904.
12/8/1888, The
railway from Budapest
to Constantinople opened.
15/7/1846, The first steam railway in Hungary opened;
Pest to Vacs, 35 km.
8/1827, A horse
drawn railway from Pest to Kobanya opened.
31/1/1961, The West Claire Railway, immortalised in songs by
Percy French, closed.
1959, The railways from Monaghan
closed.
10/7/1949, The last tramcar ran in Dublin.
30/8/1906, A new express rail service linking Cork and
Waterford with London via the new ports of Rosslare and Fishguard was
inaugurated.
1903, The Letterkenny to
Burtonport railway opened.
12/9/1893, The Killorglin to Valentia Harbour line opened.
31/3/1891, The Tralee and Dingle railway opened.
1887, The narrow gauge West
Clare railway (3ft 0) opened beteween Ennis, Kilrush and Kilkee. It closed
in 1967.
1887, The Tralee to Fenit
railway opened; closed in 1972.
1887, The Cavan and Leitrim
railway opened; closed in 1959.
1883, The Londonderry to
Burtonport railway opened.
12/5/1866, The direct railway from Cork to Macroom opened.
31/12/1863, The railway from Londonderry to Lough Swilly opened.
1859, The railway reached
Tralee.
5/9/1853, The Waterford to Tramore railway opened.
1/10/1852, The Londonderry
to Newtown Limavady railway, 18 � miles, opened.
13/9/1852, The Newton Stewart to Omagh railway, 9 � miles, opened.
10/6/1852, The Wellington
Inn to Mullaglass railway, 6 miles, opened.
3/5/1852, The Tipperary
to Clonmel railway, 24 � miles, opened.
9/2/1852, The Strabane to
Newton Stewart railway, 9 � miles, opened.
6/1/1852, The railway from Portadown to Mullaglass, 16 � miles, opened.
8/12/1851, The railway
from Cork to Bailinhassig, 10 miles, opened.
1/8/1851, The Dublin to Galway railway, 76 �
miles, opened.
14/11/1850, In
Kilkenny, Ireland, the Bagenalstown to Laristown Junction railway, 10 �
miles, opened.
6/5/1850, The railway
from Belfast to Newtonards, 13 � miles, opened.
14/2/1850, The railway
from Drogheda to Navan, 17 miles, opened.
1/11/1849, The Mallow to Cork railway, 19 � miles, opened.
1/8/1849, The Bandon to
Ballinhassig railway, Cork, (10 miles), opened.
28/5/1849, The railway
from Newry to Warrenpoint, 5 � miles, opened.
17/3/1849. The railway
from Limerick Junction to Mallow opened.
15/2/1849, The Dundalk to
Drogheda (22 miles) and the Dundalk to Castle Blayney (18 miles) opened.
2/8/1848, The railway
from Belfast to Holywood opened.
24/7/1848, The Carlow to
Bagenalstown railway, 10 miles, opened.
3/7/1848, The Thurles to Limerick Junction railway,
20 � miles, opened.
11/5/1848, The Kilkenny to
Thomastown railway, 10 � miles, opened.
11/4/1848, The railway
from Belfast to Ballymena, 33 � miles, also the Carrickfergus branch (3 miles)
and the Randalstown branch (2 miles) opened.
9/5/1848, The Limerick to
Tipperary railway, 24 � miles, opened.
1/3/1848, The Portadown
to Armagh railway, 10 � miles, opened.
19/4/1847, The railway
from Londonderry to Strabane, 14 � miles, opened.
4/8/1846, The Dublin to
Carlow railway, 56 � miles, opened.
26/5/1844, The Dublin to
Drogheda railway opened.
1842. The Belfast to Portadown railway opened.
12/8/1839, The railway
from Belfast to Lisburn opened;
extended to Armagh,
1/3/1848.
1836, The Belfast to Armagh railway opened.
1836, The Dublin to Drogheda railway opened.
17/12/1834, The first railway in Ireland opened,
from Dublin
to Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), 6 miles. The engineer was William Dargan,
now known as the �Father of Irish Railways�.
1934, The Apennine Tunnel
(Florence to Bologna line), 18.5 km, was completed.
20/8/1925. Rome�s underground railway opened.
5/7/1910, The St Moritz to Tirano railway, Italy, opened.
24/8/1867, The Brenner Pass railway, from Italy to Innsbruck,
Austria, opened.
1857, The Milan to Venice railway opened.
1854, The Turin to Genoa railway opened.
1853, The first railway through the Alps, from Vienna to Trieste, opened.
1846, The railway reached Venice,
via a 1.2 km causeway over the lagoon, ending the city�s status as an island.
4/10/1839, The first railway opened
in Italy: Naples to Portici. 8km.
Liechtenstein
1872, The railway through Vaduz opened.
Malta
1883, The Valetta to Citta Vechia railway, 12 km at 1-metre
gauge, opened. It was unable to compete from the start with horse-drawn road
transport, and was taken over by the State in 1892, With the advent of
mmotorised buses and cars, the line closed in 1931.
Monaco
1964, The main line through
Monaco was removed from the sea front and put in a tunnel. It was electrified
in 1969.
Montenegro � see Yugoslavia
For map of historical development of selected
canals and railways, Netherlands, click here
18/9/1957, The railway between Amsterdam and Brussels was
electrified.
1927, The railway from Rotterdam
to Amsterdam was electrified.
1908, The ralway from Rotterdam to The Hague was electrified.
1/1/1938, The Netherlands railways were nationalised,
having gone bankrupt in 1937.
1910, Differences in gauge
between various Dutch railways hindered goods traffic.
1904, The electrified railway, Amsterdam to Zandvoort,
opened.
1902, The Zutphen to Emmerich tramway opened.
1902, The Enschede to Ahaus (Germany) railway opened.
1900, The Breda to Steenbergen, St Philipsland, Zierikzee and
Brouwershaven tramway opened.
1898, The Rotterdam to Numansdorp (Hollandsch Diep) tramway
opened.
1898, The Purmerend to Alkmaar tramway opened.
1898, The Alkmaar to Hoorn railway opened.
1893, The railway from Hook of Holland to Rotterdam opened.
1892, The Netherlands
railway system was largely complete, apart from minor local lines opened since
then.
1892, The Netherlands
railway system adopted Greenwich Mean Time, which was 20 minutes behind
Amsterdam time.
1890, The Rozendaal to S�Hertogenbosh railway opened.
1885, The railway from Dordrecht to Elst opened (construction
began 1882)
1885, The railway from Stavoren to Leeuwarden opened.
1885, The Zaandam to Enkhuizen railway opened.
1883, The Nijmegen to Venlo railway opened.
1879, The Nijmegen to Arnhem railway opened.
1878, The Amsterdan to Zaandam railway opened.
1878, The Apeldoorn to Zutphen to Ruurlo to Winterswyck railway
opened.
1877, Construction of
local steam tramsways, often alongside roads, began in The Netherlands,
suppelementing the main railway network. State subsidies to encourage construction of these tramways was
available from 1893.
1877, The Rotterdam to Zwaluwe railway opened (construction began
1869).
1877, The Rotterdam to Dordrecht railway opened (construction
began 1872).
1875, The Amsterdam to Hilversum to Amersfoort to Apeldoorn
railway opened.
1873, The railway from Bokstel to Goch (Germany) via Vechel
opened.
1872, The Flushing to Rozendaal railway opened.
1869, The railway from Groningen to Nieuwe Schans (German border)
opened. From here a conncetion was made to the German railway system in 1876.
1869, The Rotterdam to Utrecht railway opened (constructin began
1866).
1869, The Utrecht to S�Hertogenbosch railway opened (construction
began 1868).
1867, The railway from den Helder to Haarlem opened (construction
began 1862).
1867, The railway from S�Hertogenbosh via Tilburg to Turmhout
(Belgium) opened.
1866, The Hengelo to Enschede railway opened.
1866, The Leeuwarden to Groningen railway opened.
1866, The S�Hertogenbosch via Eindhoven to Hasselt railway
opened.
1866, The Groningen to Zwolle railway opened.
1865, The Zwolle to Arnhem railway opened.
1865, The Nijmwegen to Cleves (Germany) railway opened.
1865, The Venlo to Maastricht railway opened.
1865, The Apeldoorn to Zutphen and Hengelo railway opened.
1865, The Apeldoorn to Deventer to Almelo to Hengelo to
Salzbergen (Germany) opened.
1863, The Harlingen to Leeuwarden railway opened.
1863, The railway from Utrecht via Amersfoort and Zwoole to
Kampen opened.
1863, The Tilburg to Bokstel railway opened.
1860, In view of the slow
progress of railway construction in The Netherlands (see 1845), a Government
programme of construction was inaugurated. By 1872 an additional 873 km of
railways had been built.
1860, The Rozendaal to Tilburg railway opened.
1856, The Arnhem to Emmerich (Germany) railway opened.
1855, The railway from Zwaluwe to Antwerp opened (construction
began 1852).
1847, The Haarlem to Rotterdam railway opened (construction began
1839).
1845, The Amsterdam� to
Utrecht to Arnhem railway opened.
1845, The Dutch State
undertook to develop a comprehensive railway system. Progress was slow,
however,and by 1860 The Netherlands only had 335 km of railways.
24/9/1839, The first passenger railway opened
in The Netherlands.� It was
operated by the Holland Railway Company (Hollandsch Yzeren Spoorweg
Maatschappij), and ran from Amsterdam to Haarlem, 19 km.
Norway see map of Swedish railways with historical changes
1933, A new 590 km
line to link the coal mines of Silesia to the new port of Gdynia was completed.
It was built by a French company, due to financial problems in Poland at the
time.
1902, A railway bridge over the River Tagus at Lisbon opened.
28/10/1856, The first railway in Portugal opened;
Lisbon to Carregado, 39 km.
Romania
16/11/1979, Bucharest Metro Line One opened, from Timpur Noi to Semanatoarea, 8.63 kilometres.
19/10/1869, The first railway in Romania
opened; Bucharest to Giurgiu, 70 km.
9/1989,
the Baikal-Amur mainline (BAM) railway opened. It was intended to assist in
exploiting Siberian mineral deposits.
7/11/1984, The Tynda to Urgal railway, Russia, opened.
5/1982, The Kunerma to Krasnoyarsk railway, Russia, opened.
2/7/1979, The Komsomolsk to Urgal railway, Russia, opened.
9/7/1935. Engineers building
the Moscow Underground discovered Ivan the Terrible�s torture chamber.
15/5/1935, The Moscow Metro railway was opened
by Joseph Stalin.
1905, The Orenburg to Tashkent railway opened.
1/1/1905. The Trans-Siberian
railway officially opened. Its aim was to facilitate trade between Russia and
China. Furs, grain, and cattle from Siberia would be traded for tea, silk, and
cotton from China.
21/7/1904. The Trans Siberian Railway was finally completed.
The 4,607 miles of track took 13 years to lay.
1/10/1903, The
Russian railway system was linked to European railways.
1898.
The Perm to Kotlas (River Dvina) railway opened.
30/11/1897, The
Vologda to Archangel railway opened.
1891,
Construction began on the Trans-Siberian
railway, Moscow to Vladivostock. See 21/7/1904.
1887,
The North Caucasus Railway,
connecting Baku and
Novorossiak, opened.
1884,
The line to Tyumen opened.
1883,
The Baku to Batoumi
and Tiflis railway opened.
1878,
The line from Perm to Ekaterinberg opened.
13/11/1851, The railway between Moscow and St
Petersburg opened,
3km; extended to Pavlovsk,
1838.
19/6/1840, John Cockerill,
Russian railway constructor, died.
30/10/1837, The first railway in Russia opened, from St Petersburg to the
Czar�s Summer Palace at Tsarskoe Selo.
Serbia / Yugoslavia
27/11/1975, A new
modern railway from Belgrade to the Mediterranean port of Bar opened
(construction began 1952).
1905, Construction began on the railway from Antivari (Adriatic
coast) to Virbazar (Lake Scutari).
1886, The branch line from the Serbia-Nis main line opened to
Smederevo (Semendria).
15/9/1884, The first railway in Serbia opened;
Belgrade to Nish, 151 miles.
1873,
6/9/1873, The
railway to Fiume / Rijeka opened from Karlstadt / Karlovac; a branch from the
Vienna-Trieste line.
1865, The Zagreb to Karlovac line opened.
1992, The Madrid to Seville high
speed line opened.
1939, The Spanish broad gauge
network was nationalised.
1908, The branch line to Velez
Malaga opened.
1906, The Spanish Government
ratified the 1904 Railway Convention
with France, whereby a line was to be constructed from Oloron via Canfranc to
Jaca, Saragossa and Pau.
1875, First railway in Majorca.
1870, First railway to Cordoba.
1863, The first railway in
Bilbao (to Tudela) opened.
1850, First railway in Madrid.
28/10/1848, The first railway in Spain opened; Barcelona to
Mataro, 27km.
Spain delayed installing railways partly due to fear on another invasion by
Framce. It then used a sloightly wider guage than the rest of Europe.
Spitzbergen
1917, A mineral line 2.5 km long, 1-metre gauge, opened at King�s
Bay to serve the coal mines. It was the most northerly railway in the world. It
closed in 1929, reopened in 1945, and closed permanently in 1965 after a mine
explosion.
Sweden, see map of Swedish railways with historical changes
1950, The Stockholm Metro began
operations.
1999,
The Vereina Tunnel (Lavin to Klosters line), 19.2 km, was completed.
1982, The bFurka Base Tunnel (Oberwald to Realp line),
15.5 km, was completed
1922,
The Simplon No.2 tunnel (Brig to Iselle line), 20.0 km, was completed.
1910, The Swiss
railways were nationalised.
1906,
The Simplon No.1 tunnel (Brig to Iselle line), 19.8 km, was completed/
1903, The railway
from Coire via the Rhine Valley, Reichenau, Thusis, Schyn Gorge, Tiefenkastell,
to Bevers, opened.
1882, The Gotthard Tunnel (Goschenen to Airolo line),
15.0 km, was completed.
9/8/1847, In Switzerland the Zurich to Baden railway, 24 km, opened.
15/6/1844. The first railway in Switzerland
opened, Basle to St Ludwig (now Saint
Louis, France).
Asian railways
China (inc. Hong
Kong).
18/8/2020, Line 6 of the Shenzhen Metro opened.
28/6/2016, Line 11 of the Shenzhen Metro opened.
28/9/2009, Line
Four of the Beijing Metro, 28.2 km long, opened.
8/12/2007, Construction work
began on Line L2 of the Beijing Metro,
running 23 km from the southern terminus of Line Five. Trains began running in
December 2010.
2006, The Wushaoling Tunnel (Dacaigou to
Longgou line), 20.8 km, was completed/
2006,
The first railway from China into Tibet opened, from Golmud to Lhasa.
2002, The Qinling Tunnel, Qinling
Mountains, 18.4 km, was completed.
18/8/1988, In Hong
Kong, the Light Rail Transit line between Tuen Mun and Yuen Long, 23 km,
opened.
1/10/1979, The first
section of the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway, from Hong Kong Island to
Kowloon, opened.
4/4/1979, Through services from
Canton to Kowloon (Hong Kong) were restored (withdrawn 14/10/1949).
1/10/1969, The first
line of the Beijing Metro, 24 km long, opened.
Construction had been approved in 1965.
1/7/1952, In China, the Chungking to Chengdu railway opened (construction began
1951)
14/10/1949, Through train services from Kowloon (Hong Kong) to Canton
were withdrawn, but restored on 4.4.1979.
1936, The Canton to Hankow railway was
completed.
1912, The first Chinese
President, Sun
Yat Sen, called for a railway to be built from China into Tibet. This was a
political move, to counter the British occupation of Tibet proceeding from India.
5/8/1911, The entire Kowloon to Canton railway opened.
1/10/1910, The line from the tip of Kowloon, Hong Kong, to
the Sino-British border opened, see 5/8/1911.
1909, The railway from Shanghai
to Nanking opened.
1908, China nationalised its
railways.
1888, Hong Kong�s funicular Peak
Tram line opened.
1888, The Tangshan to Tientsin
railway opened. It was extended to Shanghaikuan in 1894,and to Feng�tai near
Beijing in 1896.
1880, The first permanent
railway in China opened, The 8 km narrow guage line ran from the Kaiping
coalfield, nbear Tangshan, and connected it with a canal that went on to the
Pehtang River. Because of Chinese prejudices against steam locomotives, the
line was worked by mule traction. The company engineer, CW Kinder, then secretly
built a steam locomotive using parts recovered from scrap, but the Chinese
authorities heard about this and sent a party to investigate; Kinder, warned of
this, then dug a large hole and buried his engine. The line was was extended to
Lutai in 1886 and Tientsin in 1888.
1876, First railway in China
opened. It ran for 32 km, Shanghai to Woosung. However the Chinese were
suspicious of the new technology. Some
Chinese feared that the �devil machines� would desecrate ancestral graves, and
even threw themselves in front of the locomotive. After some 20 Chinese had
been killed this way, the line was closed and dismantled in 10/1877.
India
1915, The Teesta
Valley Railway to Kalimpong, 45 km, opened.
11/1899, The light
railways from Gwalior to Sipri, and Gwalior to Bhind, opened.
1899, The Goona to Baran railway, Gwalior, opened.������������
1856, The
Bombay-Calcutta-Madras-Nagpur railway was completed.
14/2/1873, The railway from Delhi to Rewari, India, 84km,
opened.
1854,
The first line of the East India Railway
Company opened,
18/4/1853, The first railway in India opened;
Mumbai to Thana, 40 km. By 1856 rail lines linked Mumbai, Kolkata, Madras and
Nagpur.
1864, The first railway in Indonesia opened,
from Semarang to Jogkakarta.
Iran
1/1939, The Trans
Iranian Railway was completed, after nearly 12 years under construction,
linking the Caspian Sea with the Persian Gulf.
Iraq
17/7/1940, The Baghdad Railway was completed.
1898, The Baghdad Railway was first proposed in Germany. This was a scheme to build
a railway from Berlin via the Bosphorus to Baghdad and possibly on to the Shatt
al Arab, thereby linking to the Persian Gulf.The scheme alarmed Britain which
perceived a threat to its interests oin southern Persia and India; also Russia
which was seeking to develop the railway system in Persia from its own
territories to the north.
19/10/1898, Baghdad
Railways concession was granted to Deutche Bank again.
Israel
31/8/1908, The Haifa to Derraa railway opened.
It closed in 1949.
8/1892, The railway from Jerusalem to Jaffa (Tel Aviv) opened.
2008, The Sanko Line 108 km,
closed (open 1930).
2002, The Iwate-Ichinohw Tunnel
(Morioka to Aomori line), 25.5 km, was completed.
1988, The Seikan Tunnel
(Hokkaido to Honshu line), 53.5 km, was completed..
1/4/1987, Japan privatised its railways, to seven companies.
1982, The Haruna Tunnel
(Jomo-Kogen-Echigo line), 15.3 km, was completed.
1980, The Daishimizu Tunnel
(Jomo-Kogen-Echigo line), 22.4 km, was completed.
1975, The Shin Kanmon Tunnel
(Honshu to Kyushu line), 18.7 km, was completed.
1972, The Rokko Tunnel (Osaka to
Shinkobe line), 16.3 km, was completed.
1/10/1964, The Shinkansen �Bullet Train� was inaugurated
between Tokyo and Osaka. It averaged 163 km/hr (101 mph).
1927, The frst line of the Tokyo
subway opened. This was the first subway in Asia. It ran between Ueno and
Asakusa.
15/12/1914, The Iwate Light Railway opened new stations in the
Iwate Prefecture, Japan, including Ayaori, Iwanebashi, and Futsukamachi.
25/10/1913, The Iwate Light Railway was extended in Iwate
Prefecture, Japan, serving stations Nitanai, Oyamada, and Tsuchizawa.
16/3/1906 Japanese railways were nationalised.
14/10/1872, The Yokohama to Shinagawa line was extended to Tokyo.
12/6/1872, The first railway in Japan opened; Yokohama to Shinagawa.
Jordan
1906, Construction
work began on a branch line from Aqaba to the Mecca-Beirut railway.
Korea
(North and South)
First railway opened 1899.
Mongolia
1956, the
Trans-Mongolian Railway opened, linking to Beijing and to the Trans-Baikal
Railway at Naushki.
Myanmar (Burma)
1903, The railway
from Hernzada to Letpadan opened.
1902, The railway
from Henzada to Bassein opened.
1900, The railway
from Saigang to Alon via Monywa, and the railway from Meiktila to Myingyan, opened.
1888, The railway
from Yangon
(Rangoon) to Mandalay opened.
1884, The railway
from Yangon
(Rangoon) to Toungoo opened.
1/5/1877, The first railway in Myanmar
opened, Yangon to Prome, 257 km.
Pakistan
13/5/1861. The first railway in what is now (2016)
Pakistan opened,
from Karachi City to Kochi, 169 km.
24/11/1892, The first railway in The Philippines,
from Manila Bay to Gulf of Linguven, 120 miles, opened.
Saudi Arabia
1864, The Hejaz Railway. A �pilgrim�s railway� was first proposed, to run
from Damascus and Cairo
to Mecca
and Medina. The idea failed to gain headway until the British gained influence
in the region due to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. That incentivised
Germany, along with Ottoman Turkey, to create a rail link under Turkish control
down into Saudi Arabia. A Turkish engineer surveyed the route in 1900. The
route would follow the old caravan route, which had water supplies, needed by
steam engines as well as people. A unique rail guage of 105 cm was chosen so no
other nation�s rolling stock would fit. The route from Damascus to Medina, some
1400 km, opened on 1/9/1908. During World War One, the Arab revolt against Ottoman Turkey,
led by Lawrence of Arabia, resulted in this railway being largely destroyed.
However the northern section between Ma�an and Damascus was repaired by the
Allies as they needed it for the assault on Damsacus and further north in 1918.
Plans to restore the entire line were made in the early 1960s but were
cancelled due to the Six Day War in 1967. Restoration plans continue to be
proposed in the early 21st century.
Sri
Lanka
2/10/1865, The first railway in Sri Lanka opened,
from Colombo to Ambepussa, 93 km. Construction had begun in 1858.
Taiwan
3/11/1900, In Taiwan, the Takau to Tainan railway, 43 km,
opened.
1887, First railway
condstruction started.
Turkey,
1939, The railway
reached Elazig. From here it was extended to Genc in 1954 and to Mus in 1955.
1935, The railway
reached Kayseri (378 km east of Ankara).
1887, The Tersus,
Adana and Mersina railway opened.
1870, The first
section of the Anatolian Railway,
from Haidar Pasha to Ismid, 58 miles opened.�
Ismid to Angora, 301 miles, opened in 1892. A branch from Eskishehr
(between Ismid and Angora) to Konieh, 276 miles, opened in 1896.
Uzbekistan
1905,
Samarkand was connected by rail with Tashkent.
1888,
Samarkand was connected by rail with the Caspian Sea.
Vietnam,
1986, A new line
from Hanoi to Da Nang opened.
1/1910, The railway
from Hanoi to Yunnan-Fu opened.
1885, The first railway in Vietnam opened, from Saigon to My Tho.
Australasian railways
9/10/1980, A new line was opened from Tarcoola, Australia, to
Alice Springs; the old route closed on 1/1/1981.
23/2/1970, Passenger services began on the railway between Perth and
Sydney, Australia, a distance of 2,461 miles.
2/8/1929, The first Trans-Australian Railway, N-S, was
completed,
22/10/1917, The
Trans-Australia Railway opened, from Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta.
1914,
The first railway in the Australian Capita, Territory opened,
a 10 km goods� line to Canberra from
Queanbeyan, New South Wales. The line began taking passengers from 1923.
28/12/1914, South
Australian Railways opened the Peebinga railway line from Karoonda to Peebinga,
South Australia, Australia.
1912,
Construction of the Trans-Australia railway began.
10/1889,
The first railway in the Northern Territory opened.
This ran 233km from Darwin to Pine Crek. It was extended as far south as
Larrimah, near Birdum, by 1929.
1883, The Sydney, New South Wales, to
Melbourne, Victoria, railway was completed.
14/6/1883, The
railway bridge over the River Murray opened, uniting the rail systems of New
South Wales and Victoria.
1881,
The railway from Perth to Freemantle, 33 km, Western Australia, opened.
1879,
The railway from Geraldton to Northampton, 55 km, Western Australia, opened.
6/6/1871, The first railway in
Western Australia opened. It was a
private timber line from Lockville to Yoganup, south of Perth.
1868,
The first railway in Tasmania opened.
It ran 72 km� between Launceston and
Deloraine.
31/7/1865, The Ipswich to Grantchester railway,
21 miles, opened.
The first railway in Queensland.
21/4/1856, The Adelaide to Port Adelaide railway,
Australia, opened.
26/9/1855, The first railway in New South Wales opened,
Sydney to Parramatta.
12/9/1854, The Flinders Street to Port Melbourne
railway opened,
the first steam railway in Australia.
18/5/1854, The Port Elliot & Goolwa railway,
South Australia, opened. Drawn by
horse, this was the first public railway in Australia,
carrying goods and people.
1837,
The first railway in Australia ran in Tasmania from Norfolk Bay to Long Bay
across the Tasman Peninsula. Passengers were pushed in open wagons by teams of
four convicts.
1827,
An inclined tramway of iron rails was opened to carry coal from a mine at
Newcastle to Port Hunter.
27/2/1971, In New
Zealand, the Catlins River branch railway through Maclennan (opened 1915)
closed.
1945, The Christchurch to Picton railway opened.
1891, The Wellington to Napier railway opened.
1886, The Wellington toNew Plymouth railway opened.
1879, The Christchurch to Bluff railway opened.
24/12/1873, The
railway from Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, to Onehunga opened.
9/12/1867, The line
to Lyttleton, from Christchurch, was opened, and the short section to Ferrymead
was abandoned.
5/2/1867, The Invercargill to Bluff
railway, New Zealand, opened.
1864,
A railway, 18km was opened from Westport to the coal mines. Westport to
Fairdown via Sergeants Hill opened 31/12/1875; extended to Seddonville 1895.
These railways remained isolated until joined to the national network by the
opening of the Stillwater to Westport via Buller Girge railway, 1942.
1/12/1863, The first steam railway in New Zealand opened,
from Christchurch
to Ferrymead.
3/2/1862, The first railway in New
Zealand opened, the horse operated Dun Mountain railway. It ran 22 km from a
chrome mine to Nelson in South Island. It closed in 1866.
African railways
Algeria
1871, The Alguers to Oran
railway, 430 km, opened.
15/8/1862, First railway opened in Algeria.
It ran 50 km south west from Algeirs.
The foundation stone of Blidah Station, on this
line, was laid in 1859.
Angola,
1/7/1931, The Trans African Benguela to Katanga railway was
completed.
28/8/1928, The Benguela Railway opened, for copper exports.
It ran across Africa� via Congo and
Rhodesia to Beira, Mozambique.
1904, Work began on a railway
from Lobito Bay, 40 km north of Benguela, intended to run towards the
Congo/Rhodesia frontier.
1887, Construction work began on
the railway from Luanda to Ambaca and Malanje. The line reached Ambaca in 1894,
and was intended to continue across Africa to Mozambique. However the railway
proved very expensive to contruct, at an average �8,924 per mile, and work was
halted.
Benin,
1/1/1935, The rail terminus at Parakou, Benin, opened.
1905, The railway reached
Abomey, and onwards to Pauignan.
1902, The railway from Kotonu to
Toffu opened, 89 km.
Congo
(Republic of),
1962, The mineral line from Mont
Belo to M�Bindo opened.
29/5/1934, The railway from Pointe Noir on the Atlantoc coast
to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, 515 km, opened.
Cote
D�Ivoire
1903, Railway opened running
inland from Abidjan.
Egypt
1987, The Cairo metro opened; the first subway
system in Africa. It was built by the French.
1904, The broad gauge line from
Cairo to Port Said opened. A railway was begun running west from Alexandria, to
reach Tripoli, and eventually Tangier.
1858, The Alexandria to Suez
railway opened.
1/1856, The first
railway in Africa opened, 208 km, from Alexandria to Cairo.
Eritrea
1904, The railway from Asmara to
Massawa was completed as far as Ghinda.
Eswatini
(formerly Sawziland)
10/1964, The line from Ka Dake to Goba, Mpozambique,
200km, opened (construction began 5/1962). Built to take iron oire to the port
of Lourenco Marques, and then on to Japan, saldo ulso used for agricultiral
exports
Ethiopia
7/6/1917, The railway from Addis Ababa to Djibouti was
completed.
31/12/1902, The railway from Djibouti was completed as far as
Dire Dawa.
6/2/1902, France agreed with Ethiopia to finance a railway
from Djibouti to Addis Ababa. Britain and Italy both protested.
Ghana
1956, As part of the Volta
Aluminium Project a railway opened from Achiasi (Central Province Railway) to
Kotuku (Accra-Kumasi line). Construction had begun in 1954.
1943, The railway from Dunkawa
to Awaso opened (c0nstruction began 1942) in order to exploit the bauxite
deposits.
1927, The Huni Valley railway to
Kade opened (construction began 1923).
1923, The railway from Accra to
Kumasi was completed (construction began 1905).
1922, The railway from Tarkwa to
Prestea opened (construction began 1911)
1903, The railway from Sekondi
to Kumasi opened.
1902, The railway reached
Kumasi.
1901, The Sekondi to Tarkwa
railway was constructed.
Kenya
26/12/1901, The Uganda Railway was completed,
linking Mombasa
with Lake Victoria. This railway both facilitated British
colonisation of Uganda and (by superseding the carriage of goods by humans) did
much to eliminate the local slave trade.
Malawi,
1908, The Shire Highlands
Railway, from Nsanje on the Shire River to Blantyre, opened.
Mauritius
1864, First railway opened.
Morocco
9/1908, First railway in
Morocco opened, from Casablanca to Ber Rashid. This line was to
export the agricultural produce from the area.
Mozambique
1/5/1899, The railway reached Beira, from Zimbabwe.
14/12/1888, The railway from Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, to
the Transvaal frontier, South Africa, opened. The Boer Government had agreed to
extend this line south to Pretoria.
Namibia
7/1902, The railway from
Swakopmund to Windhoek opened (construction began 1897).
Nigeria
1912, Railway to Kano opened.
1908, The railway from Lagos
reached Ilorin (Ibadan to Ilorin, construction began 1905).
1901, The railway reached Ibadan
(construction began 1896).
1899, The railway from Lagos to
Abeokuta, 103 km, opened.
Senegal.
1885, The first railway in
West Africa opened, between Goree (Dakar) and St Louis.
Sierra
Leone,
1976, The Sierra Leone railway system closed.
1905, The railway reached
Pendembu.
1903, The railway reached Bo.
1896, The railway from Freetown
to Kissy opened.
22/6/1904, The Cape to Cairo railway opened.
10/10/1895, The Cape Town to Durban railway, South Africa,
opened.
8/7/1895. The opening
of the Delagoa Bay railway, from Johannesburg to Maputo Bay, gave the
Transvaal access to the sea independent of the British colonies.
1894, The railway reached Mafeking.
1892, The Cape Town to Johannesburg
railway was completed.
1886, The Durban to Ladysmith railway
opened; subsequently extended from Ladysmith to Johannesburg.
1863, The Cape Town to Wellington railway
opened. From Wellington the railway reached Worcester in 1876, Beaufort West in
1880 and De Aar in 1884. The railway from Port Elizabeth to De Aar also opened
in 1884. Kimberley was reached in 1885.
13/2/1862, In South Africa, the Cape Town to Erste River railway opened.
26/6/1860, The first railway in South Africa
opened; Durban to Point (Natal).
Sudan
1906, The Suakin to Berber railway opened.
Tanzania
2/2/1914, A 900-mile railway opened
between Dar-Es-Salaam
and Tanganyika.
Togo,
1934, The railway reached
Blitta.
18/7/1905, The first railway in Togo opened; from Lome 45 km to Anecho.
Tunisia
1874, The first railway in Tunisia opened Tunis to La
Marsa.
Zaire,
1892, The first railway in Zaire
opened; from Matadi to Leopoldville
(now, Kinshasa).
Zimbabwe
1956, The railway between Bulowayo and
Lourenco Marques opened.
6/10/1902. A railway between Bulawayo and Salisbury was completed. It ran a total of 2000 miles down
to Cape Town.
4/11/1897, The projected Cape to Cairo Railway reached
Bulawayo (now in Zimbabwe), from the south.
1891, Britain signed
a treaty with Portugal for a railway to be constructed from Southern Rhodesia
(Zimbabwe) to Beira in Mizambique, as that was a nearer port than Cape Town; in
return Portugal would receive a duty of not exceediong 3% of value of goods
transported.
North American railways (US, Canada)
1989, The Mt MacDonald Tunnel (Selkirk Mountains,
British Columbia line), 14.7 km, was completed.
1956, The railway
from Terrace to Kitimat opened.
1956, The railway
from Squamish to Vancouver, 61 km, opened.
9/3/1919, The Canadian Grand Trunk Pacific Railway went
bankrupt. It was nationalised in 1920.
25/1/1915. In Canada, the Northern Railway from Lake Superior
to the Pacific Coast was completed.
1906, The Canadian
Northern railway from Winnipeg to Edmonton was completed.
1900, The railway
from Skagway to White Horse opened, 177 km.
1899, The railway
from Hearst to Sault Sainte Marie, 476 km, opened.
29/6/1898, Passenger services began on the first railway in
Newfoundland, from St Johns to Hall Bay, Construction of the line had begun on
9/8/1881, against considerable local opposition and violence. The line was
completed in 1896.
23/5/1887, The Canadian Pacific Railway reached Vancouver.
28/6/1886, The first through train for the Pacific left
Montreal.
7/11/1885, The last spikes were driven in at Craigellachie in
British Columbia,
completing the Canadian Pacific
Railway after 4 � years work. The Government of British Columbia had stipulated that
they would only join the Canadian federation, rather than the USA, if they were
connected by railway to the rest of Canada by 1891. Trains running
from Montreal to Port Moody, capital of British Columbia from 1886, took 5 to 6
days.
1881, The Canada Pacific Railway Company was founded.
1876, Canada�s Intercolonial Railway was completed, linking
Ontario to the Maritime Provinces.
1/7/1876, The railway from Amherst to Riviere du Loup,
Canada, opened.
1872, The Halifax-Truro railway
was extended to Amherst.
31/12/1860, The first railway tunnel in Canada opened; it ran
for 540 metres below Brockville, and was abandoned in 1974.
1858, The Halifax to Truro
railway opened.
16/8/1851, The railway from Laprarie, Quebec, Canada to
Rouses Point, New York, USA, opened.
31/7/1851, Canada legislated to make the 1676 mm gauge, the
�Provincial Gauge�, a pre-co0ndition of financial aid to any railway, thereby
introducing a standard gauge for the country.
1847, The Montreal and Lachine
railway opened.
21/7/1836, The Champlain & St Lawrence Railroad, the first steam railway in Canada, opened between Laprarie and St
John.
7/1/1827, Sir Sandford Fleming, Canadian engineer who
oversaw the construction of much of the Canadian railway system, was born.
US rail map, https://railmaponline.com/
6/1996, The Dalla
(Texas) light rail system opened, 18 km.
1993, The Los Angeles subway opened.
14/10/1980, In the USA, the Staggers Rail Act was passed. This deregulated the US railways,
allowing them to alter charges, close unprofitable routes or merge companies
with much less government interference, except in areas where they have �market
dominance�. However other forms of transport continued to enjoy more government
subsidies.
27/3/1976, The first 4.6 miles of the Washington
DC subway system opened.
1/5/1971, Amtrak, the US rail operator, began
operations. It took over virtually all US rail routes, in a
Federally-funded effort to halt the decline in US rail service. However rail
services to many US cities now ended.
1970, Penn
Central collapsed, It had been the USA�s largest railway company,
and the 6th largest US company overall
31/10/1970, In the US, Amtrak, or The National Railroad Passenger
Association, was formed, to promote rail travel for passengers.
29/3/1957, 871 km of rail track in the US was closed
on one day by the New York western and Ontario Company.
23/5/1952, US railways, having been
operated by Federal troops for the previous 21 months, now returned to private
ownership.
1950, The Virginia
and Truckee Railway, which had gone into administration in 1937, was abandoned.
25/8/1950, To avert a possible US
railway strike, President
Truman ordered Federal troops to operate the US railway system.
1949, General Motors and other auto companies
were found guilty, in a trial that had begun in 1947, on Federal antitrust
charges. They had, from the late 1920s,
secretly purchased many of America�s tram and light rail systems so as to close
them down, to boost the car market. However the Judge in the case, William J
Campbell, imposed only a nominal pena;lty, a fine of US$ 5,000 on GM
and the other companies, and a fine of US$ 1 on each of the dirctors.
1944, The Leadville
to Ibex railway, Colorado, closed.
28/2/1936, The Interstate Commerce Commission ordered a
reduction in basic rail passenger fares from 3.6 to 2 cents per mile everywhere
in the United States.
18/12/1935, The Huey P Long Bridge in Mentaine, Louisiana, opened.� It was the world�s longest railway bridge.
12/10/1934, The Association of American Railroads was set up.
Almost all significant railway companies in the US, Canada and Mexico are
members.
27/12/1917, The US
Government took over the American railways.
12/3/1914, George Westinghouse, American engineer who
patented the Westinghouse Railway Brake
in 1868, died in New York City.
20/5/1913, The Florida East Coast Railway reached Key West,
but its constructor, Henry M Flagler, died this day aged 83. 3,000
men had died during the 7 years construction of this line, many of yellow
fever, and hurricanes damaged the railway in 1926 and 1935.
2/2/1913. Grand Central
Station in New York,
the world�s largest railway station, opened,
at 42nd Street, replacing an earlier shed. The cutting that carried
the tracks down 4th Avenue to 42nd Street was now paved
over, creating Park Avenue.
9/9/1909, Edward Harriman, US rail magnate who turned
the Union Pacific Railway around from near-bankruptcy in 1898, died (born
25/5/1848).
1906, The
Alsakan Central Railway was authorised, to run 745 km from Seward to Fairbanks.
72 km of this railway was already in operation in 1905.
1906, The Hepburn Act allowed the US
Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railway services.
New York
suburban
4/1/1962, The first driverless trains appeared on the New
York subway.
27/10/1904. The first
section of the New York subway opened. Trains ran from City Hall to Broadway
and 145th Street.
24/3/1900, Construction began on the New York Subway. The
elevated railway had been prone to shut down in snowstorms.
1879, New York City�s 3rd
Avenue elevated railway reached 129th Street, after reaching 67th
Street in 1878.
1878, New York City�s elevated
railway along 6th Avenue opened from Rectory Street to Central Park.
By 1880 it reached north to 155th Street, causing a conbstruction
boom in apartment houses along its route.
26/2/1870, The first
underground railway in the USA opened, in New York.
14/3/1904, In the USA, a Court ruled (Northern Securities
case) that proposed mergers of railway interests violated the Anti-Trust Act.
8/3/1904,
The Denver and Salt Lake railway opened,between Ogden and Lucin, USA.
1903, In the US, the Elkins Act
forbade rail companies to give preferential carriage rates to favoured
customers, and forced them to issue public notices of rates.
1902, The El Paso to Bisbee railway opened.
1899, Boston South station
opened; Boston North station had opened in 1894.
1901, Henry R Huntington
incorporated the Pacific Railway Company, and began construction of inter-urban
lines around Los Angeles. By 1913 the network reached 42 cities, provoking a building
boom.
1898, The settlement of Alamogordo, New Mexico, was founded when the El Paso
and North Eastern Railway reached this location.
19/10/1897, George
Pullman, US manufacturer of railway sleeping and dining cars that bear his
name, died in Chicago, Illnois, aged 66. In
1864 he had patented the railway sleeping car with folding upper berth.
1/9/1897. Boston�s underground railway began
operating.
1895, The Chicago
overhead electric railway, 29km, opened.
18/9/1893. In the USA, the Great Northern Pacific Railway opened. This was the most northerly of the
USA�s rail routes between the Mississippi River and the Pacific.
10/8/1885, The first electric street car railway
in the US was opened
in Baltimore by Leo Daft.
8/9/1883, The Northern Pacific Railway was completed, as the
last spike was driven at Gold Creek, Montana, after 13 years construction.
1882, The railway from Denver to
Gunnison, USA, opened.
17/3/1881, The first through train from Kansas City to
California ran.
8/3/1881, The Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway linked up
with the Southern Pacific Railway in New Mexico.
1880, The first railway reached
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1878, A �railway war� resulted when two railway
companies, the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe, and the Denver and Rio Grande,
both attempted to run tracks along the Arkansas River canyon, Colorado State.
The canyon was only wide enough for one set of tracks. During the day each
company laid tracks, and at night they sabotaged each other�s work, throwing
tools in the river and dynamiting the track works. The dispute took two years
to settle, in favour of the latter railway company.
6/9/1876, The first railway reached Los Angeles (Southern
Pacific Railroad), from San Francisco. The Santa Fe Railroad reached Los
Angeles in 1885. For a time the rail
fare westwards from Chicago was just 1US$, although considerably more going
east. This pricing strategy was adopted to encourage more settlers to move
west, so railway income from fruit harvested around Los Angeles would increase.
1875, Railway tracks from New York�s Central Station were placed in a large cutting that ran along 4th
(Park) Avenue;the cutting had taken 3 years to build. By 1915 the cutting was
largely covered to create a tunnel.
1874, The Hoosac Tunnel, 9.3 km, in NW Massachusetts, was
completed (begun 1855).
4/7/1874, The
railway east from St Louis, USA, opened, crossing the Mississippi by the Eads
Bridge.
1/8/1873, The first street cable cars in the world
were installed in San Francisco, on Clay Street Hill; the steep terrain made
horse buses impractical. They were the invention of engineer Andrew Smith
Hallidie, 37.
19/12/1871,� The city of
Birmingham, Alabama, was
incorporated. In 1870 the site of Birmingham was a cotton field crossed by two
railways. Birmingham
was founded by a land company backed by the railways.
15/8/1870, In the US, the Transcontinental Railway was
completed in Colorado.
24/7/1870. The first transcontinental train
arrived in New York from San Francisco.
1869, A cog railway up Mount Washington,
1,907 metres in |New Hampshire, was completed.
10/5/1869. The first railroad
across the USA from east to west, 1,776 miles long, was completed
after three years work at a ceremony west of Ogden, in Utah. The Union Pacific
Line finally met with the Central Pacific Line. Both companies raced to lay as
much track as possible as they converged, spurred on by government payments of
US$16,000 per mile, more for mountainous areas. A golden spike was driven in at
Promontory Point, Utah, where the railways met. Travel time between New York and San
Francisco was slashed from 3 months to 8 days.
4/7/1869, The Kansas City to Chicago railway opened.
1867, The first elevated track
railway in New York City opened, from Battery Place to 30th Street,
above Greenwich Street (9th Avenue). It was much faster than the
horse car transport at street level. This ;ine, the Gilbert Line, would later
be linked to the 3rd Avenue Railway, running between City Hall and
42nd Street.
1865, The Union Pacific Railway
which was begun from Omaha in 1862 now reached Kansas City.
1865, The first train hold-up, at North Bend, Ohio.
2/12/1862, Construction began on the Union Pacific Railway at
Omaha, Nebraska Territory.
22/2/1862, Construction began on the Central Pacific Railway
at Sacramento, California.
1860, The first railway in Texas
opened, Harrisburg to Alleyton.
1859, The Pullman carriages on
the Chicago and Alton railroad were first equipped with toilets.
14/2/1859, The railway reached St Joseph, Missouri River,
USA.
22/4/1856, The first railway bridge to cross the Mississippi
River opened between Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. Boat operators
on the Mississippi mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge, claiming that the
bridge was a nuisance.
1/4/1857, The railway from Charleston to Memphis, USA,
opened.
1856, The Illinois Central
Railroad was completed between Chicago and Cairo, Illinois.
22/2/1856, The Sacramento to Folsom railway, California, 35.4
ikm, opened.
1855, The Lehigh Valley Railway
opened its first section between Easton and \Mauch Chunk. The line evenstually
ran from New York to Buffalo.
1854, The Pennsylvania Railway,
headed by J
Edgar Thomson, aged 46, opened between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.
1854, The B&O railway
between Baltimore and Wheeling opened.
22/2/1854, The Chicago and Rock Island Railroad was completed
to Rock Island, Illinois.
1853, The railway from
Philadelphia reached Absecon, New Jersey, later famous as Atlantic City.
18/2/1853, August Belmont, US railway financier, was born
in New York.
1852, The first street railway
opened in the Boston area, between Harvard Square, Cambridge, and Union Square,
Somerville.
10/10/1852, The first train ran on the Rock Island line, 70 km
from Chicago to Joliet, Illinois, in 2 hours. In 2/1854 this line reached Rock
Island on the Mississippi to link Chicago to this major waterway. This railway
eventually reached Minneapolis-St Paul, Galveston, Denver, Colorado Springs,
Santa Rosa and Memphis.
20/2/1852, The first through train from the eastern USA
reached Chicago on the Chicago Southeastern Railway. The railway helped make
Chicago into a major grain and meat packing centre.
1851, The Hudson River Railway
opened, linking New York with East Albany.
1851, The Baltimore and Ohio
Railway reached the Ohio River at Wheeling.
1851, The railway reached Cleveland, Ohio.
16/8/1851, The railway from Laprarie, Quebec, Canada to
Rouses Point, New York, USA, opened.
4/7/1851, Construction began at St Louis on the Missouri
Pacific Railway. This railway was extended to serve the Mississippi Valley south
to Memphis and New Orleans, and the Missouri Valley west to Kansas City and Pueblo,
Colorado.
15/5/1851, The Erie Railway (begun 1832) reached Dunkirk on
Lake Erie, linking New York with the Great Lakes and competing with the 1825
Erie Canal.
1849, The Chicago and Galena
Railway reached Chicago. By 1869
Chicago was served by 10 railway lines.
1847, The railway first reached
Indianapolis, Indiana State.
6/10/1846, George
Westinghouse, US engineer and inventor of the railway air brake, was born in
Central Bridge, New York State.
1842, The railway from
Washington DC to Cumberland, Maryland, opened.
1841, The Boston to Albany railway opened.
1840, First railway in
Mississippi opened, Vicksburg to Clinton.
1838, The first railway in
Illinois opened, Jacksonville to Meredosia.
16/9/1838, James Hill, US railway capitalist, was born.
1/1838, Washington and New York
were now linked by a chain of railways, with ferries across major rivers and
stagecoach links between stations.
1837, The New York and Harlem
Railway reached Harlem.
1836, The first railway in
Maine, Bangor to Old Town, 20km, opened.
18/4/1836, The Long Island Railroad, USA, began operations.
1835, First steam hauled railway
opened in Kentucky; Lexington to Franklin, 44 km. Extended to Louisville in 1851.
24/8/1835, Passenger rail
services began into Washington DC, USA.
27/5/1835, Charles Francis
Adams, President of the Union Pacific Railroad 1884-90, was born in
Boston.
1834, The Tuscumbia to Decatur railway, Alabama, opened.
1834, The Camden to South Amboy railway, New Jersey,opened.
1834, The Baltimore to Harpers Ferry railway, West
Virginia,opened.
1834, The Tallahassee to Port Leon railway, Florida, opened.
7/10/1834, Staple
Bend rail tunnel, 6.4 km east of Joihnstown, poennsylvania, 275m long, opened.
1833, The Weldon, North Carolina, to Petersburg, Virginia,
railway opened.
1833, The Charleston to Hamburg railway, South Carolina, opened.
9/11/1833, The first
passenger train accident in the US. 12 of the 24 passengers on the
Camden and Amboy line between Spotswood and Hightstown, New Jersey, were
seriously injured.
6/6/1833, The
Baltimore to Ohio railroad became the first railway to carry a US President, Andrew Jackson.
1832, The Northwich to Killingly railway, Connecticut, opened.
1832, The Detroit to St Joseph railway, Michigan, opened.
26/11/1832, Trams began
running in New York City, between Prince Street and 14th
Street.� They were introduced by John Mason.
14/11/1832, The New
York and Harlem railway began operations. It was New York�s first street
railway. In 1834 itwas extended up 4th Avenue to 84th
Street.
1831, The New Orleans to Lake
Pontchartrain railway, Louisiana, opened.
1831, The Newcastle to
Frenchtown railway, Delaware, opened.
1831, The New York to
Schenectady railway,New York State, opened.
7/1831, The Newcastle and
Frenchtown Turnpike and Railway Company opened a 27.8 km route; steam powere
was used from 10/1832. It is now part of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
30/6/1831, The
Baltimore to Ohio railroad became the first railway in the US to carry troops.
3/3/1831, George
Pullman, who developed the Pullman Railway Carriage, was born in Brocton,
New York State.
15/1/1831, The South Carolina Railroad opened in the US. It
was the first in the US with a regular passenger service.
1830, The Mohawkand Hudson
railway began operations. It later formed part of the New York Central railway
in 1853.
25/12/1830, The first steam-powered regular train service in America
began, running from Charleston on the South Carolina Railroad.
14/12/1830, The first
practical rail locomotive capable of running a regular passenger service began
operations on the South Carolina Railroad. Full passenger services began on
25/12/1830.
25/8/1830, A lighter
steam locomotive began operating on US rails; and was capable of 13 mph.
24/5/1830, The first passenger railway in America opened,
from Baltimore
to Ohio, 22 km.
9/10/1829, In the US
the Carbondale to Honesdale railway was opened by the Delaware and Hudson Canal
Company. However the steam locomotives were too heavy for the track, which was
initially worked as a gravity line.
7/8/1829, The first
steam railway engine ran in the USA. It operated on the Delaware and Hudson Bay
railways, but was too heavy for the rails so was impractical.
4/7/1828, Construction began on the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad.
7/10/1826, The first railway in the USA opened, at
Quincy, Massachusetts.
25/8/1819,� Allan Pinkerton,
founder of the Pinkerton detective agency, which specialised in railway theft,
was born.
10/1/1804, Oakes Ames, US industrialist who played a
major role in the construction of the transcontinental railway across the USA
to California, was born in Easton, Massachusetts (died in North Easton,
Massachusetts, 8/5/1873).
Caribbean islands
Bermuda
1931,
A 22.5km line opened from Somerset to St Georges via Hamilton. It closed in
1947.
Cuba
19/11/1837, The first railway in Cuba opened. It ran from Havana to Bejucal.
Jamaica,
21/11/1845, The first railway in Jamaica opened. It ran 20 km between Kingston
and Spanish Town.
Central American railways
Mexico
1970,
The Mexico City metro system opened.
1907, The Mexican Isthmus railway formally
opened, across from Coatzacoalcos (Puerto Mexico) on the Atlantic coast 309 km
to Salina Cruz on the Pacific coast. The line had actually been completed in
1894, but lack of port facilities along with defective construction rendered it
useless.
1880, Concessions were granted for three
rail lines from Mexico City south to Oaxaca, and north to the US frontier at
Cuidad Juarez and to Laredo.
1874, A concession was granted for a 39
km line from the port of Progreso to Merida.
1873,
The line from Mexico City to the seaport of Veracruz, 424 km, opened.
1862, 16 km of railway were in operation
from Veracruz. This was to be part of the line to Mexico City.This year it was
extended to Paso del Macho, total length 60 km.
1857, The Ferrocarril Mexicano was
created.
1854, The Mexico City to Guadeloupe line,
7 km, opened.
El
Salvador
19/3/1900, The
railway from San Salvador to Santa Anna and the port of Acajutala opened.
Honduras
1869,
First railway opened, Puerto Cortes to La Pimienta, 95 km.
Nicaragua.
1903,
The railway reached Managua.
Panama
28/1/1855. The 47-mile Panama Railway, linking the Atlantic and
Pacific across the Isthmus of Panama, opened.
South American railways
Argentina
1948,
Argentinian railways were nationalised.
20/2/1948, The 863
kilometre railway from Salta, Argentina, to Antofagasta, Chile, was completed.
12/1913,
The first urban
metro system on South America opened, in Buenos Aires.
5/4/1910, A Trans-Andean railway
from Mendoza, Argentina to Los Andes, Chile was completed. The line had been
proposed back in 1854, but work did not begin until 1887. Passenger services
were withdrawn in 1979 due to lack of demand, but freight traffic has grown.
1884, The railway reached the city of
Mendoza.
14/12/1865, The
Buenos Aires to Chascomus railway, 70 miles, opened.
30/8/1857, The first railway in Argentina opened,
Parque to Floresta (Buenos Aires), 9.9 km.
Bolivia
1913,
The Arica to La Paz railway opened.
1908,
The railway reached La Paz.
1873,
The first railway on Bolivia opened,
from Antofagusta (now part of Chile) to the nitrate mines.
Brazil
30/5/1957, Brazilian
Federal Railways, RFFSA, was established.
1912, The Madiera to Mamoro railway opened, 410 km, after 6 years
construction during which 6,000 workers had died. Smakenbites, arrows from
hostile indigenous inhabitants, malarial yellow fever and wild animals had all
taken a toll. The railway was to export rubber, but the Brazilian rubber
plantations were soon superseded by plantations in Africa and eastern Asia.
30/4/1854, The first railway in Brazil opened. It ran 10 km from Maua, Rio
Bay, to the foot of Petropolis Sierra.
Chile
1948,
The Northern TransAndine Railway from Antofagasta, Chile, to Salta, 904 km,
opened.
1863,
The Santiago to Valparaiso railway opened.
25/12/1851, The first railway in Chile opened. It ran from the port of Caldera
to Copiapo, 80.5 km..
Colombia
1961,
The railway from Bogota to the Atlantic port of Santa Marta opened.
1855, The
first railway in Colomnia opened.
Guyana
30/6/1972, The
Georgetown to Plaisance railway closed.
1900, The railway reached Rosignol.
3/11/1848, The first railway in South
America opened.
It ran from Georgetown to Plaisance.
Ecuador
25/6/1908, The
railway from Guayaquil, on the Pacific,�
to Quito fully opened. Construction had begun in 1871.
Paraguay
1961,
Paraguay nationalised its railways.
1861,
The railway from Asuncion to Paruguar opened. Extended to Encarnation in 1911.
Peru,
1921,
The Morococha cut-off railway opened.
1908,
The railway from Juliaca (a station on the Mollendo to Puno line) to Cuzco was
completed.
1902,
The railway from Ticlio to Morococha opened.
18/9/1908, The
railway from Oroya to Huanco opened.
14/11/1893, The
railway from Chicla to Oroya opened.
5/1878,
The railway from Callao to Chicla opened.
29/9/1877, Henry
Meiggs, who was building the Callao Lima and Oroyo Railway,
died� aged 66 after a series of strokes,
with the project still unfinished.
17/5/1851, The first railway in Peru opened. It ran 15 km from the port of
Callao to Lima.
Suriname
28/3/1905, The Lawa railway from Paramaribo to Dam opened in Suriname
Venezuela
1883,
Railway from Caracas to the port of La Guaira, 38 km, opened.
Antarctican and extra-terrestrial railways
OK we don�t have any railways on the Moon, and we
haven�t seen any evidence of any on Mars, or beyond, as yet. But there are a
few in the Antarctic Region, see this site ((may be a problem occasionally with
the wrong sort of snow on the lines)
https://www.sinfin.net/railways/world/antarctica.html
