This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 2008.

Events

By month

February events

• February 27
  • – Official opening of Santo Domingo Metro.
  • – National Express changes the name of the railway operating company one to National Express East Anglia as part of a company-wide rebranding exercise.^[1][2]

March events

• March 9 – Sprinter starts service between Oceanside and Escondido, California,^[3] reinstating passenger service on the Escondido branch line.
• March 15 – The Osaka Higashi Line is scheduled to open in Osaka, Japan; the opening was originally scheduled for 2006, but delayed due to problems acquiring land.
• March 27 – Heathrow Terminal 5 station opens in London.
• March 30 – Yokohama Municipal Subway's Green Line is opened for regular operations.
• – Kolkata Metro is extended from Tollygunge station to Pranabnagar station.

April events

• April 1 – The Miki Railway Miki Line in Japan, which connected Yakujin Station in Kakogawa and Miki Station in Miki, is closed.
• April 26 – FrontRunner, a new commuter rail service, begins running in Utah.
• April 28 – Wrexham & Shropshire begin to run passenger services between London Marylebone station, the West Midlands, Shropshire and north-east Wales.^[4][5][6]

CRH3 unit for Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway

June events

• June 2 – An unexploded bomb from World War II is found near where the District and Hammersmith & City lines cross the Prescott Channel, not far from Bromley-by-Bow tube station, causing disruption to trains.^[7]
• June 2–6 – AfricaRail 2008 Conference.^[8]

July events

• July 5 – Meeting between Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador regarding a proposed rail link for freight and passengers between the three countries, also connecting the Pacific with the Atlantic.

August events

• August 1
  • – China officially opens the Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway line, the first in the world regularly to host trains traveling up to 350 km/h (220 mph).^[9][10][11]
  • – LNER-design Peppercorn Class A1 60163 Tornado makes first official move under its own steam, the first main line steam locomotive built in Britain since 1960.^[12]

Tornado, August 2008

November events

• November – Voter approval of Measure M in Los Angeles County, California, commits additional tax dollars to transit projects.

December events

• December 27 – The first section of the new Valley Metro Rail system, part of Valley Metro in Phoenix, Arizona, opened.^[13][14][15]

Accidents

• April 28 – 2008 Shandong train collision: Sixty-six people are killed and almost 250 injured when a passenger train from Beijing careers off the rails and slams into another train in eastern China. The rail accident, the worst in China in more than a decade, happens near the city of Zibo in Shandong province.
• August 8 – 2008 Studénka train wreck: A EuroCity train en route to Prague strikes a part of a motorway bridge that has fallen onto the track near Studénka station and derails, killing 8 people and injuring 64 others.
• September 12 – 2008 Chatsworth train collision: A Metrolink commuter train, having passed a signal at danger, collides head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles, killing 25 and injuring 130.^[19]

Deaths

Industry awards

References