December 12 in rail transport

Events

19th century

20th century

* 1901 – Pennsylvania Railroad president Alexander Cassatt announces the railroad's plan to enter New York City — to tunnel under the Hudson River and to build a grand station on the West Side of Manhattan, a station that would become Pennsylvania Station.
* 1911 – Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway inaugurates its first extra-fare named passenger train, the "Santa Fe De Luxe" between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California. [cite book|author=Waters, Lawrence Leslie| year=1950| title=Steel Trails to Santa Fe| publisher=University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, Kansas| id=| p. 388.]
* 1988 – Two commuter trains collide at around 8:00 AM (local time) in the Clapham Junction rail crash, on the southeast side of London, England.

21st century

* 2004 – SNCF disallows smoking on all French TGV trains.
* 2004 – Swiss Federal Railways begins the first phase of implementing its Rail2000 plan to improve service.
* 2006 – The Ghan passenger train derails in the Northern Territory of Australia after colliding with a truck at a level crossing.

Births

* 1812 – James Grant, first president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad 1851-1854, is born (d. 1891).
* 1849 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, heir to Cornelius Vanderbilt and president of the New York Central system (d. 1920).

Deaths

References