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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 2002.

Events

January events

• January - The Muskingum Electric Railroad, one of only six heavy freight electric railroads in the United States, closes.^[1]
• January 2 - The Iowa Interstate Railroad operates its first unit coal train over the former Milwaukee Road mainline through Amana, Iowa.^[2]
• January 14 - The British Strategic Rail Authority unveils its 10-year strategic plan for the national railway network, including a £4.5bn investment in new trains, improved station facilities, track repair and signalling work.^[3]
• January 27 - St Albans railway line block signalling and electrification extended to Sydenham.

February events

• February - Australia’s National Rail Corporation's freight operations and assets are combined with the New South Wales Government-owned FreightCorp and sold to Toll Holdings and Patrick Corporation as Pacific National.
• February 8 - Changi Airport MRT Station on the Singapore MRT System is opened, giving the airport its first rail link in 21 years.

April events

• April - United States President George W. Bush appoints David L. Gunn to head Amtrak.
• April - David Laney joins the Board of Directors for Amtrak.
• April 4 - General Motors Electro-Motive Division and Porterbrook are awarded a contract to build new diesel locomotives for the first open access rail freight carrier in Belgium.^[4]
• April 17 - Robert Krebs resigns as chairman of the board of directors for the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, and is replaced by company CEO Matthew K. Rose.^[5]

Virgin Trains Class 390 Pendolino at Euston

• April 29 - The first Class 390 Pendolino train, operated by Virgin Trains, arrives at Euston Station in London, England.

May events

• May - The Metrolink 91 Line opens for service between Los Angeles and Riverside, California.
• May 2 - An eastbound Canadian National train collides with a trailer near Firmdale, Manitoba, Canada; about 20 cars carrying plastic pellets, benzene, glycol and hexane catch fire, forcing the evacuation of nearly 200 local residents.^[6]

• May 10 - The Potters Bar rail crash occurs at Potters Bar, north of London, England, when a northbound passenger train derails at high speed, killing seven and seriously injuring another eleven.
• May 13 - Jaunpur train crash: the Shramjivi Express, travelling from New Delhi to Patna, India, strikes a sabotaged section of rail and derails at Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, killing 12 people.

June events

• June 12 - The Talgo XXI trainset sets the land speed record for railed vehicles with diesel power at 256.38 km/h (159.3 mph).
• June 24 - In the Igandu train disaster, a large passenger train in Tanzania with over 1,200 people on board rolls backwards down a hill into a stationary goods train, killing 281 people.

July events

• July 1
  • Norges Statsbaner is privatised under the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications.
  • The railroad dining car catering services of Mitropa, which was founded in 1916, are handed over to DB Reise & Touristik AG, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn.
• July 4 - General Motors Electro-Motive Division announces that it will build new locomotives for HSBC Rail; the locomotives will be leased by CargoNet for use in Norway north of the Arctic Circle and are expected to enter service after February 2003.^[7]
• July 26 - The German manufacturer of rail equipment, Vossloh, announces the acquisition of the French company Cogifer.
• July 30 - The Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad takes over operations from the defunct I&M Rail Link in the north central United States.^[8]

August events

• August 1 - Deutsche Bahn opens the high-speed line between Frankfurt and Cologne, Germany.

September events

• September 10 - At least 130 people are killed in the Rafiganj rail disaster in India, where a passenger train derails on a bridge and falls into a river. Naxalite sabotage is suspected.

October events

• October 31 - BC Rail operates the last run of the Cariboo Prospector passenger train between Prince George and North Vancouver, British Columbia.

November events

• November 22 – The Toronto Transit Commission opens the Sheppard Subway, connecting the Sheppard-Yonge and Don Mills stations.^[9]
• November 23 – Expansion opens at Fremont-Centerville (Amtrak station).

December events

• December - National Express Group hands back its M>Train, M>Tram and V/Line public transport franchises in Victoria, Australia to the state government due to financial instability.
• December - The Tōhoku Shinkansen in Japan is extended from Morioka to Hachinohe.
• December 10 - Inauguration Belgian High Speed Line 2 (HSL 2 - Leuven<>Ans) by Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant.
• December 15 - All first-class cars on the TGV become non-smoking cars.
• December 27 - The first X'Trapolis train enters service with Connex in Melbourne, Australia.

Unknown date events

• The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad are combined under the holding company Cedar American Rail Holdings.
• Completion of 360 km of dual gauge track on Bangladesh Railway, improving connections between the previously isolated east and west networks and giving 1676 mm gauge access to Dhaka, the capital.^[10]

Births

Deaths

Awards

North America

2002 E. H. Harriman Awards

Awards presented by Railway Age magazine

• 2002 Railroader of the Year: E. Hunter Harrison (BN, IC, CN)
• 2002 Regional Railroad of the Year: Reading, Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad
• 2002 Short Line Railroad of the Year: Winchester and Western Railroad

United Kingdom

Train Operator of the Year

• 2002:

References

Some of the events listed here were translated from 2002 dans les chemins de fer, the equivalent French-language Wikipedia article.