December 2005 in Rail Transport - December Events - December 4 - December 10

December 10

December 4

• - Pakistan Railway Minister Mian Shamim Haider announces that the so far single track mainline connecting Pakistan and India is now complete and that trains will begin operating in revenue service in January. The route currently connects Khokarapar and Monabao, and work has begun to double track sections of the line between Sheikhupura and Lahore and later between Lahore and Gujranwala.

December 5

• - Construction begins on the Iron Silk Road, a high speed passenger rail connection between China and mainland Europe. The $5 billion project is expected to be completed in 2010. The proposed route will travel from China through Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey where it will connect with the rest of the European rail network. A second proposed route would connect through Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Poland. The southern route is favored for an eventual connection to the Persian Gulf, but political instability may hamper that expansion.
• - The signing of the Kenya-Uganda Railways concession is delayed. This marks the second time the concession agreement was delayed; the first time it was due to technicalities cited by one of the investors. The latest delay is attributed to the President Mwai Kibaki's dissolution of his cabinet in Kenya. Since Kenya's Transport Minister is one of the signatories, a new date cannot be set until a new cabinet is in place. The concessioner, Rift Valley Railways Consortium, is now expected to take control of the railways in early April 2006.

December 6

• - Kansas City Southern Industries (KCSI), owner of both Kansas City Southern Railroad (KCS) and Grupo Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), renames TFM to Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (KCSM). Marketing and administrative duties for the two railroads will be combined, a move that will directly affect the management team of TFM; some of the management has already been combined, such as the intermodal and automotive business for both railroads now managed by vice president Michael J. Smith. Javier Rion, TFM's current CEO, will step down within three months.
• - London, England's Docklands Light Railway extension to London City Airport opens. With the difference in fares between the railway connection (£2.80) and a comparable black cab ride into London (as much as £15), DLR executives anticipate more passengers will choose to travel by rail as awareness increases. Cab drivers are also anticipating a shift in ridership as a large number of business travelers using the airport had been using cabs to get there.
• - General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, announces that studies will begin on connecting all of the emirates in the United Arab Emirates by rail for both passenger and intermodal freight transport. The 700 km (430 mi) proposed route would connect Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah with Ruwais and Ghowaifat. Officials hope to create a public-private partnership in order to build and operate the proposed railway. The project is part of a wider plan and a requirement of the Gulf Cooperation Council's plan to connect all Arab states by rail.
• - Railway officials in Slovenia officially open the newly upgraded border crossing with Croatia at Dobova. It is the nation's first rail crossing to comply with the strict European Union Schengen treaty border crossing security standards; the five other compliant border crossings include Ljubljana International Airport, the port of Koper and road crossings in Jelšane, Gruškovje and Obrežje.

December 7

• - Officials in St. Petersburg, Russia, announce that United States-based East Group will begin building railroad rolling stock at a new plant just outside the city in 2006. A second plant in nearby Tikhvin is expected to begin production in 2009, with a total volume over 10,000 railroad cars per year.
• - Following two derailments on the former BC Rail mainline in British Columbia, Canadian Transport Minister Jean Lapierre orders Canadian National Railway (CN), the current operator of the line, to limit trains operated there to no more than 80 railroad cars. Eleven derailments have occurred on the line in 2005, the most recent occurred on December 5 when several empty cars derailed near Squamish and fell from the roadbed in Cheakamus Canyon. CN acknowledged that the number of derailments on this line was high for 2005, but maintains that its railroad is one of the safest in North America.
• - QJ 7081 pulls the world's last regularly scheduled passenger train behind a steam locomotive on a mainline railroad when it pulls a train between Daban and Chabuga, China.

December 8

• - Florida East Coast Railway announces its estimate for the costs of damage due to Hurricane Wilma two months earlier. The railroad estimates recovery costs to reach between $2.5 and $3 million.
• QJ 6988 pulls the world's last regularly scheduled steam locomotive powered freight train on a mainline railroad when it pulls a train between Daban and Chabuga, China.