Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
December 26, 2017 In Indonesia, a new airport rail link made its debut on the island of Java. The 33.7-mile (54.3-kilometer)-long Soekarno-Hatta Airport Railink was built to reduce travel time for individuals between South Jakarta, an administrative subdivision of Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta (officially known as the Special Capital Region of Jakarta), and the... Continue Reading →
December 13, 1937 The Reading Railroad’s express passenger train Crusader made its first regular run along a 90.3-mile (145.3-kilometer) route between the Reading Terminal in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. The train received its name thanks to a contest that offered $250 to the winning entry, which was selected by... Continue Reading →
December 6, 2015 In northeastern Japan, a new subway line began operations in the city of Sendai in the Tōhoku region. The east-west Tozai Line was the second of the Sendai Subway’s two lines to go into service, with the north-south Namboku Line having been opened in 1987. The Tozai Line encompasses a total of... Continue Reading →
December 2, 2018 In the state of Assam in northeastern India, a road-rail bridge began service when a freight train chugged across the newly built structure. Piyush Goyal, India’s minister of railways, used his Twitter account that same day to highlight this crossing. He tweeted that the inaugural train trip on December 2 was “a... Continue Reading →
November 26, 2017 In the Australian state of Victoria, a new railway station was officially opened on Bay Road in the Melbourne suburb of Cheltenham. Southland railway station, which is part of the Frankston railway line (a commuter rail passenger train service in the Melbourne area), made its debut more than 130 years after building... Continue Reading →
November 4, 1877 The Maria Pia Bridge in northern Portugal made its public debut. (At the time, the country was a constitutional monarchy formally known as the Kingdom of Portugal.) The railway bridge, which spans the River Douro and connects the city of Porto with the municipality of Via Nova de Gaia, resulted from a competition... Continue Reading →
October 24, 1891 A new railway station was officially opened along the Øresund strait at the city of Helsingør (best known in English as Elsinore) in eastern Demark. This building continues to serve as Helsingør’s principal railway station, and it was constructed to replace a station that had been in existence elsewhere in the city... Continue Reading →
October 21, 1863 George Alexander Troup, an architect, and engineer who designed a large number of notable railway stations in New Zealand was born to Scottish parents in London, England. Not long after his birth, his family returned to Scotland to live in Edinburgh. By the time he turned 11, Troup was attending a prestigious... Continue Reading →
October 9, 1884 In the present-day Federative Republic of Brazil, the Corcovado Rack Railway made its debut in Rio de Janeiro. At the time, Rio de Janeiro was the capital of the Empire of Brazil. Emperor Dom Pedro II officially inaugurated the railway, which transports passengers between the neighborhood of Cosme Velho and the summit... Continue Reading →
October 4, 1908 In northern Mexico, a new electric railway was inaugurated in the city of Chihuahua. This railway, with Martin Talonier as its managing director, replaced a horsecar system that had been in service since 1887. Compañía Eléctrica y de Ferrocarriles de Chihuahua (CEFC) was organized earlier in 1908 to develop an electrical means... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 