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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1970.

Events

January Events

• January 5 and 6– The Erie Lackawanna's trains Nos. 5 and 6, The Lake Cities, from Hoboken to Chicago, discontinued ending all of the Lackawanna's long distance passenger service .

February events

• February 1 – The Kennedy rapid transit extension of the West-Northwest route (5.2 miles/8.4 km) in Chicago, Illinois is put into operation between Logan Square and Jefferson Park via a subway connection and the median of the Kennedy Expressway.
• February 13 – The United States Interstate Commerce Commission approves the discontinuation of the California Zephyr passenger train.

March events

• March 2 – The Great Northern Railway, Northern Pacific Railway, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway merge to form Burlington Northern Railroad.
• March 22 – The Western Pacific Railroad portion of the California Zephyr makes its last run.

April events

• April 12 – Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad discontinues its Black Hawk passenger train service between Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.
• April 27 – The first double-deck passenger cars to operate in regular service on Canadian passenger trains enter service in Montreal.^[1]
• April 30 – Canadian Pacific Railway operates its first unit train of coal destined for Japanese markets from Sparwood, British Columbia.^[1]

May events

• May 20 – The Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) relinquishes its interest in 44-mile (72 km) Tijuana and Tecate Railway Company to Mexico's national railway, Ferrocarril Sonora Baja California, S.A. de C.V.

June events

• June 21 – The Penn Central declares Section 77 bankruptcy in the largest corporate bankruptcy in United States history thus far. The trains continue to run.
• June 28 - The Chicago Urban Transportation District is created by local referendum in downtown Chicago to finance and build the 1968 Loop and Distributor Subway project as recommended by the Chicago Central Area Transit Planning Study.

July events

• July 6 – Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad moves its South Bend, Indiana, passenger stop from downtown South Bend to another facility near the Bendix plant after the last train leaves the downtown terminal.^[2]

August events

• August 22 – 3801 went around Australia from the east coast to the west coast with the train called The Western Endeavour
• August 25 – Mobile and Gulf Railroad operates the last regularly-scheduled steam locomotive-powered train on a common carrier railroad in North America.^[3]

October events

• October 30 – United States President Richard Nixon signs into law the Rail Passenger Service Act, a bill that creates Amtrak to take over the burden of passenger train operations in America.

Unknown date events

• The Boston and Maine Corporation, operators of the Boston & Maine Railroad, declares bankruptcy.
• The diesel engine manufacturing business of the former American Locomotive Company is sold to White Motor Corporation.
• Reginald N. Whitman succeeds John W. Barriger III as president of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.^[4]
• Shipment of gasoline from Casper, Wyoming, the city that shipped the greatest amount in the world of gasoline by rail earlier in the 20th century, is shifted from railroad tank cars to a new pipeline.^[5]
• Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad San Juan Extension between Antonito and Alamosa, Colorado, is converted from dual gauge to standard gauge by lifting the 3 ft (914 mm) gauge rails.^[6]

• Construction begins on the Joetsu Shinkansen line from Tokyo to Niigata, Japan.
• The New York City Transit Authority begins removing its R1-R9 Units from service.

Births

Deaths

April deaths

• April 25 – Oliver Bulleid, chief mechanical engineer of Southern Railway in Great Britain 1937-1948 (b. 1882).

July deaths

• July 4 – Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, heir to Cornelius Vanderbilt and president of the New York Central railroad system (b. 1884).

References

• (June 2005), "Timeline", Trains Magazine, p. 19.