Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
November 21, 1983 Regular operations began for the Baltimore Metro SubwayLink, a rapid transit line serving Maryland’s largest city and its northwestern suburbs, early that Monday morning. Rick Hirsch, reporting for the Miami Herald, highlighted both the significance of this line and the overall route it encompassed. Hirsch stated, “The Baltimore Metro -- America’s first... Continue Reading →
October 24, 1906 On Spain’s northeastern coast, operations began for the Vallvidrera Funicular in the district of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi in the city of Barcelona. This cable railway system was built on a steep slope of a hill that is part of the Collserola mountain range. The funicular serves as a link between the neighborhood of... Continue Reading →
September 4, 2023 Operations began for the rapid transit component of a rail system in Lagos State in southwestern Nigeria. The first portion of Lagos Rail Mass Transit to go into service was an 8.1-mile (13-kilometer) segment of the system’s Blue Line in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city and one-time capital. (Lagos State was named for... Continue Reading →
August 6, 1927 In downtown Toronto, the present-day version of the major railway station known as Union Station was formally opened. The original Union Station had been built in that part of Toronto in 1858 and was torn down in 1871. Its successor was a larger building that opened there two years later and remained... Continue Reading →
August 5, 2010 A major bus station in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan, first went into service. Those taking part in the inauguration of this station included Hau Lung-pin (born in 1952), who was mayor of Taipei from 2006 to 2014. The Taipei City Hall Bus Station is located in a mixed-use skyscraper complex... Continue Reading →
July 30, 2018 In central Florida, daily operations began for a recently completed segment of a commuter rail system in the Orlando metropolitan area. This 17-mile (27.4-kilometer) extension of SunRail encompassed the following four new stations for the second oldest commuter rail system in the Sunshine State: Meadow Woods Station in Orange County; and Tupperware,... Continue Reading →
July 17, 2024 In southern Italy, operations officially began for a new segment of the rapid transit system serving the city of Naples. The start of regular service for this extension of Line 6 of the Naples Metro took place the day after Gaetano Manfredi, who has been mayor of the city since 2021, joined... Continue Reading →
June 30, 1979 The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), which had been established in 1971 as a bus network only, opened the first part of its rapid rail system. This new transit service -- built on a section known at the time as the East Line -- made Atlanta the first city in the... Continue Reading →
April 4, 1901 In Switzerland, a funicular railway in the city of Zurich first went into service. This railway was built to carry people up and down the Zürichberg, a 2,228-foot (679-meter)-high hill in the northeastern part of the city. A key destination on this hill at the time was a restaurant named Rigiblick that... Continue Reading →
March 27, 1976 The first 4.6 miles (7.4 kilometers) of the Washington Metro were officially opened just over six years after construction on this rapid transit system had begun. “The nation’s capital got a subway Saturday,” announced a subsequent Associated Press news article, “an itty-bitty one by most metropolitan standards, but a subway nonetheless.” This... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 