Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
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 →
February 26, 2017 Regular passenger train runs began for a railway line in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This inaugural segment of the line was built between Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital city, and the Qassim Region in the central area of the country. The line was launched by the Saudi Railway Company (SAR), which has... Continue Reading →
February 17, 2014 In the Australian state of South Australia (SA), a railway station in Wayville was formally opened to the public. (Wayville is a suburb of the City of Unley, a government area within the metropolitan region of SA’s capital of Adelaide.) This station was built as a transit link for the Adelaide Showground,... Continue Reading →
February 13, 1851 A railway station in southeastern England’s village of Hamstreet first went into service. This station was built as part of the South Eastern Railway (SER), which operated in this area of the country from 1836 to 1922. At the time of its opening, the station was spelled out as “Ham Street” rather... Continue Reading →
February 10, 2013 Regular service began at 11:00 a.m. for the first fully automated line of the rapid transit system Metropolitana di Milano (Milan Metro) in Italy’s second most populous city. Line 5 -- also known as M5 or the Lilac Line -- had been formally inaugurated five days earlier. Those on hand for that... Continue Reading →
February 6, 1995 While not yet completed, an Amtrak train station in San Diego County’s city of Solana Beach in southern California first went into service. Solana Beach Transit Center was built to take the place of a longtime station in the nearby city of Del Mar. In reporting on the Monday debut of Solana... Continue Reading →
February 3, 1978 The first section of the Washington Metro rapid transit system to be completed in Maryland was formally dedicated in Montgomery County just a few days before regular service began on that 5.5-mile (8.9-kilometer)-long extension. Approximately 35,000 people showed up on that cold winter day at the Silver Spring station, the northeastern end... Continue Reading →
January 27, 2024 In the northwestern part of Arizona’s capital city of Phoenix, more than 2,000 people turned out for the opening of a 1.6-mile (2.6-kilometer) extension of Valley Metro Rail. This light rail system’s newest segment at the time encompassed three stations altogether. One of these stations is Metro Parkway station, which is the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 