Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
October 4, 2012 Bernard Holden, whose long life was devoted to railroads in a variety of contexts, died at the age of 104 in the English village and civil parish of Ditchling. Fittingly enough, he had been born in 1908 in the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway station house in the village of Barcombe... Continue Reading →
September 17, 1871 Within the Alps mountain range in Europe, a tunnel connecting the French commune of Modane with the Italian town and commune of Bardonecchia was officially opened to rail traffic. This transportation route runs through the region of the massif known as Mont Cenis and beneath both the Pointe du Fréjus (a mountain)... Continue Reading →
August 13, 1877 In Australia’s colony (now state) of New South Wales (NSW), a railway station in the town of Quirindi was opened to considerable fanfare. This station was built as a link for the Main North Line – also called the Great Northern Railway – in that region of Australia. The next day’s edition... Continue Reading →
August 2, 1886 A railway station was inaugurated in the village of Yenice in what is now southern Turkey's Mersin province. Yenice was designated as a town in 1953; since 2013, it has been a neighborhood of the municipality and district of Tarsus. At the time of Yenice station’s opening, this region was part of... Continue Reading →
July 18, 1924 After more than three decades of service, the Belleville funicular tramway in Paris ceased operations. This railway consisted of cable cars connecting the Place de la la République (Republic Square) in the north-central region of France’s capital city with Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Belleville, a major church on a hill in northeastern Paris’s Belleville... Continue Reading →
July 10, 1908 The Thamshavn Line, Norway’s first electric railway, made its debut. The initial segment of this trailblazing line was formally opened by Norway’s King Haakon VII (1872-1957). This railway was built to carry ore from the mines at the village of Løkken Verk in central Norway to the ports of Orkanger and Thamshavn... Continue Reading →
July 1, 2002 On Japan’s island of Shikoku, a passenger railway station was opened in the town of Kagami in Kōchi Prefecture. (In 2006, Kagami became part of the newly formed city of Kōnan; however, the name of the station has remained the same.) Kagami Station is located on the 26.5-mile (42.7-kilometer)-long Asa Line of... Continue Reading →
April 16, 2013 A newly built railway terminus in Kurla, a suburb of western India’s city of Mumbai, was officially opened. (Along with being the most populous city of India, Mumbai is the capital of the country’s state of Maharashtra.) This terminus was the replacement for a smaller and dilapidated station complex that had long... Continue Reading →
April 8, 2017 A replacement railway station on Monte Generoso in southeastern Switzerland was opened. This station is specifically located in Ticino, which has the distinction of being the only Swiss canton where Italian is the sole official language. The current version of Generoso Vetta railway station was designed by Ticino-born architect Mario Botta (born... Continue Reading →
March 14, 2020 A railway station in Takanawa, a neighborhood of the special ward of Minato in Japan’s capital city of Tokyo, made its official public debut. Takanawa Gateway Station, which is operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East), was opened in March of 2020 so that it could be readily available over... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 