- 1977 in rail transport
Events
January events
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January 10 – Passenger service onBoston and Maine Railroad 's Lexington Branch ends when a train consisting of aBudd Rail Diesel Car and aswitcher locomotive are stranded by a snowstorm at theBedford, Massachusetts depot. [Friends of Bedford Depot Park, Inc. (March 18 2000 ), " [http://www.bedforddepot.org/RRHistory.html A Chronology of Bedford's Railroad History] ". RetrievedJanuary 10 2006 .]
*January 18 –Australia experiences its worst ever railway disaster at Granville, a suburb ofSydney ,New South Wales , when a commuter train derails and hits a bridge, causing the bridge to collapse on top of the train. (seeGranville railway disaster )February events
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February 4 – Chicago Loop derailmentChicago, Illinois ,United States : AChicago Transit Authority elevated trainmotorman disregards cab signals and rear ends another train at a curve on the Loop during the evening rush hour causing four cars of the rear train derail and fall to the street below. Eleven people are killed and over 180 injured in the worst disaster in the history of Chicago's rapid transit system. The motorman was suspected of being high onmarijuana . [ [http://www.chicago-l.org/mishaps/loop.html (Chicago-L.org)] ]March events
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March 28 – TheUnited States Interstate Commerce Commission approvesChicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad 's petition to end passenger service.cite web| url=http://www.post-trib.com/news/1026442,SSHISTORY629.article| title=South Shore Railroad history| date=2008-06-29 | work=Chicago Post-Tribune| accessdate=2008-06-30| ]April events
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April 21 –Indiana GovernorOtis R. Bowen signs into law an act forming the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District which will take over passenger service from theChicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad .May events
* May –
Auto-Train Corporation launches a secondAuto Train , this time betweenLouisville, Kentucky andSanford, Florida .
*May 9 – The lastParis -Istanbul train with the name "Orient Express " makes its final run. The name persists as a train running from Paris toVienna .
*May 21 – TheGlasgow Subway shuts down for a complete system overhaul. [cite book|author=Wright, John|coauthors=Maclean, Ian|title=Circles Under the Clyde – a history of the Glasgow Underground|date=1997|publisher=Capital Transport|location=Harrow Weald|isbn=1-85414-190-2]
*May 23 – A train hijack takes place at the village of De Punt, in the province of Groningen, theNetherlands . Activists aimed to endorse the Republik Maluku Selatan (RMS), a self proclaimed republic in the Maluku Islands. At the same time a hostage situation occurred at a school in Bovensmilde. The Dutch Marines stormed the train atJune 11 1977 after sixStarfighters flew over the train, creating a noise and distraction for the hostage takers. Six hostage takers and two passengers lost their lives in the operation. The activists at the school surrendered after they learned of the fate of their fellow activists in the train.June events
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June 16 – Construction begins on theMinsk Metro inBelarus (at the time, still a part of theSoviet Union ).eptember events
* September – The second
Auto Train route toLouisville, Kentucky is discontinued due to heavy financial losses.October events
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October 26 – Locomotive number 043 903 pulls the last regularly scheduled mainline train on German tracks to be hauled by asteam locomotive .Translated from cite web| url=http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Bahn/Jahrestage/26.10.&oldid=14511195| title=Portal:Bahn/Jahrestage/26.10.| accessdate=2006-10-26| language=#language:de| ]
*October 29 – First run of the "Maple Leaf".Unknown date events
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W. Graham Claytor is succeeded byL. Stanley Crane as president of the Southern Railway.
*VIA Rail Canada takes over operations of the "Super Continental "passenger train fromCanadian National .Deaths
References
* " [http://pages.ivillage.com/generaljim1/theerielackawannalimited/id19.html Norfolk Southern Railway] ". Retrieved
February 22 2005 .
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