1969 in rail transport explained

Events

January events

• January 1
  • As ordered by court, Penn Central takes over the assets and operations of the bankrupt New York, New Haven and Hartford ("New Haven") for $22 million; new passenger timetables over the new PC New Haven Region take effect February 2.
  • The Pullman Company is dissolved, having ceased to operate sleeping car services in the United States.

• January 4 – The PATCO Hi-Speedline, in southeastern Pennsylvania, opens.
• January 5 – Last trains over the Waverley Route from Edinburgh in Scotland to Carlisle in England.^[1]

February events

• February 16 – Căile Ferate Române, in Romania, completes its systemwide electrification project.

March events

• March 7 – The Victoria line of the London Underground is formally opened, between Warren Street and Victoria, by the Queen.^[2]

April events

• April 5 – The South Devon Railway at Buckfastleigh in England, reopens as a preserved steam railway, the Dart Valley Railway.

May events

• May 5 – The Lewes-Uckfield (or Wealden Line) railway line is closed under British Rail and Richard Beeching's Beeching Axe in East Sussex, England.
• May 6 – The Chicago Transit Authority's Englewood 'L' service is extended to the new Ashland/63rd Terminal, replacing the former Loomis terminal.
• May 7 – A northbound passenger train from London, England, bound for Aberdeen, Scotland, takes the curve in Morpeth too quickly and derails in the Morpeth rail crash (6 killed).
• May – Union Pacific Railroad takes delivery of General Motors Electro-Motive Division EMD DDA40X, the most powerful and largest diesel locomotive to date.

June events

• June – Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, on the United States Atlantic coast, discontinues the Silver Comet passenger train service.
• June 1 – The Catalan Talgo Trans Europ Express begins providing a through service between Barcelona (Spain) and Geneva (Switzerland) with a wheelset change at Portbou station to overcome the break-of-gauge at the Spanish–French border.

September events

• September 4 – Mexico City Metro Line 1, Chapultepec to Zaragoza route officially starts operation, a first section of Mexico City Subway.
• September 28 – The Dan Ryan Extension of the Chicago "L" system is placed in operation between 17th and State Streets and 95th Street in the median of the Dan Ryan Expressway. The new line is originally combined with the Lake Street 'L' to form the West-South Route (Lake-Dan Ryan) providing through service between 95th Street and Harlem Avenue, Forest Park, using the first of the 2200-series rapid transit cars (2201–2350) built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Nine stations, designed by the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owens and Merrill, are opened at Cermak-Chinatown, Sox-35th, 47th, Garfield, 63rd, 69th, 79th, 87th, and 95th. The Dan Ryan branch later becomes the southern half of the Red Line.

October events

• October 14  - Seibu Railway's Chichibu Line opens in Japan.

November events

• November 3 – Kansas City Southern's Southern Belle passenger train service between Kansas City, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, makes its final run.^{[3] [4]}
• November 29 – Opening of standard gauge link between Broken Hill and Port Pirie, completing the East–West rail corridor, Australia, on standard gauge between Sydney and Perth.^[5]

December events

• December 6 – The Sakaisuji Line in Osaka, Japan, is opened between and .^[6]
• December 12 – First section of RER suburban rail network in Paris opened.
• December 15 (00:50) – The last train departs Paris Gare de la Bastille,^[7] hauled by SNCF class 141TB-432^[8] on the Ligne de Vincennes to Boissy-Saint-Léger. The Gare de la Bastille is the last terminus in Paris operated entirely by steam locomotives.^[9]
• December 20 – The Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line is opened between and stations.

Unknown date events

• ALCO ceases new diesel locomotive manufacturing.
• The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway operates the last freight train on its subsidiary Grand Canyon Railway.^[10]
• Rail transport in Cambodia: The line from Phnom Penh to the southern port city of Sihanoukville is completed.

Deaths

• May 2 – Donald Gordon, president of Canadian National Railway 1950–1966, dies (b. 1901).

Notes and References

1. Web site: Last Day of the Waverley Route. August 2, 2007.
2. Book: Green, Oliver. The London Underground - An Illustrated History. Ian Allan. 1988. 59. 0-7110-1720-4.
3. Web site: Trains News Wire. 2005-04-27. Miss Southern Belle' dies. 2005-05-04.
4. Book: Carter, Thad Hills. Images of Rail. Kansas City Southern Railway. 60. Arcadia Publishing. 2009. 2013-11-02. Charleston, SC; Chicago, IL; Portsmouth, NH; San Francisco, CA. 978-0-7385-6001-4. (Reprint of an article by Philip Moseley originally published in the May 1986 issue of Arkansas Railroader). I was working that night November 3, 1969, when the last southbound run of the Southern Belle made its way into DeQueen..
5. Web site: National Railway Museum Port Adelaide – Rail History. natrailmuseum.org.au. 2008-03-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20080323003951/http://www.natrailmuseum.org.au/common/nrm_a01_index.html. 2008-03-23.
6. Web site: 7 December 2019 . 堺筋線・阪急京都線の相互直通開始50周年記念列車運転 . 1 February 2024 . Japan Railfan Magazine Online . ja.
7. Bastille, Part 1 - a living museum. David. Thomas. Continental Modeller. Peco Publications. Beer. February 2011. 78–85. 0955-1298.
8. Web site: 141 TB 407: Une abonnée aux anniversaires…. AJECTA. French. 2011-04-08.
9. Web site: Attention le 14 décembre 1969 fermeture de cette gare…. AJECTA. French. 2011-04-08.
10. Bianchi, Curt. May 1995. By steam to the Grand Canyon. Trains Magazine. 38–45.