Events

January

* January 2 – Reopening of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Northern Line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs between North London and South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. It carries more passengers per year than any other Underground linearound 340million in 2019making it the bu ...

all the way to its terminus at

Kankesanthurai Kankesanthurai (, , lit. ''Port Kankesan''), colloquially known as KKS, is a port suburb, fishing division and resort hub of the Jaffna District, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. Formerly an electoral district, Kankesanthurai is home to the Kankesant ...

. * January 6 – Groundbreaking of the

California High-Speed Rail California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) is a publicly funded high-speed rail system being developed in California by the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Phase 1, about long, is planned to run from San Francisco, California, San Francisco to ...

system, indicating sustained construction activity.

February

* February 3 – The

Valhalla train crash On the evening of February 3, 2015, a Commuter rail, commuter train on Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line struck a passenger car at a grade crossing on Commerce Street near Valhalla, New York, United States. Six people were killed and 15 others ...

, in which a train on

Metro-North Railroad The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State publ ...

Harlem Line The Harlem Line is an commuter rail line owned and operated by the Metro-North Railroad in the U.S. state of New York. It runs north from New York City to Wassaic, in eastern Dutchess County. The lower from Grand Central Terminal to Southea ...

strikes a vehicle at a

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

Valhalla, New York Valhalla ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York City metropolitan area. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The name wa ...

, killing six people and injuring 15. * February 8 – Opening of the South West Rail Link in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. * February 14 – Rebuilt

Benguela railway The Benguela Railway () is a 3 ft 6 in gauge railways, Cape gauge railway line that runs through Angola from west to east, being the largest and most important railway line in the country. It also connects to Tenke, Democratic Republic of the C ...

reopened throughout. * February 24 ** – A Metrolink train on the Ventura County Line strikes a pickup truck at a level crossing in

Oxnard, California Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California, United States. On California's Central Coast (California), Central Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the List of largest California cities by populati ...

, injuring 30. ** – The first successful 16,156-mile round trip is completed on the world's longest railway line, the Yixin'ou cargo line, which connects

Yiwu Yiwu () is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jinhua, in central Zhejiang province, China. It is best known for hosting the Yiwu International Trade City, the world’s largest wholesale market for small commodities. History Y ...

, China to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Spain.

March

* March 1 –

Virgin Trains East Coast Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) (legal name East Coast Main Line Company Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, the No ...

takes over

InterCity East Coast InterCity East Coast is a railway franchise for passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom from London King's Cross to Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. It was fo ...

franchise from East Coast * March 7 – The ''Cathedrals Express'' return charter train from Bristol Temple Meads to Southend East, operated by

West Coast Railways West Coast Railways (WCR) is a railway spot-hire company and charter train operator based at Carnforth MPD in Lancashire. Using buildings and other facilities previously owned by the Carnforth MPD#Steamtown Carnforth, Steamtown Carnforth visito ...

, overruns a signal passed at danger at Wootton Bassett Junction on the

Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs between London Paddington and . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. The GWML is presently a part of t ...

where it has a near miss with a

First Great Western First Greater Western, trading as Great Western Railway (GWR), is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that provides services in the Greater Western franchise area. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR ...

service from

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

to London Paddington. * March 14 ** – The

Hokuriku Shinkansen The Hokuriku Shinkansen () is a high-speed Shinkansen railway line connecting Tokyo with Tsuruga, Fukui, Tsuruga in the Hokuriku region of Japan. It is jointly operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and West Japan Railway Company (JR ...

high-speed route opens from Nagano to

Kanazawa is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Etymology The name "Kanazaw ...

, with the corresponding withdrawal of the 160 km/h express service on the

Hokuhoku Line The is a Japanese railway line in Niigata Prefecture that runs from Muikamachi in Minamiuonuma City to Saigata in Jōetsu City. It is the sole railway line operated by . Construction of the line first began in 1968 by the Japanese National ...

. ** – The

Ueno–Tokyo Line The Ueno–Tokyo Line (), formerly known as the Tōhoku Through Line () is a railway line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East), linking Ueno Station and Tokyo Station, extending the services of the Utsunomiya Lin ...

route opens between

Ueno is a district in Taitō, Tokyo. The area extending from Ueno to Asakusa is part of the historical Shitamachi (literally "low city") district of Tokyo, which is often associated with working-class traditions and culture as well as their dist ...

and

Tokyo Station Tōkyō Station (, ) is a major railway station in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is not far ...

. * March 21 – 2015 Uttar Pradesh train accident: The

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

''Janata Express'' heading towards

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

overshoots a signal and derails near Bachhrawan in

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

, northern India, resulting in at least fifty-eight deaths and 150 injuries. * March 28 – Line 9 of the

Seoul Metro Seoul Transportation Corporation, branded as Seoul Metro (), is a municipal-owned corporation owned by Seoul Metropolitan Government, and one of the two major operators of Seoul Metropolitan Subway with Korail. History On May 31, 2017, ...

is extended from Sinnonhyeon to

Sports Complex A sports complex is a group of sports facilities. For example, there are track and field stadiums, football stadiums, baseball stadiums, swimming pools, Olympic Parks, and indoor arenas. Asia * Azadi Sport Complex * Cebu City Sports Com ...

April

* April 1 –

Abellio ScotRail Abellio ScotRail, operating services under the name ScotRail, was the national train operating company of Scotland. A subsidiary of the Netherlands-based transport conglomerate Abellio (transport company), Abellio, it operated the ScotRail (br ...

takes over the ScotRail franchise from

First ScotRail First ScotRail was a train operating company in Scotland owned by FirstGroup. It operated the ScotRail franchise between October 2004 and March 2015. On 17 October 2004, First ScotRail took over operations from the incumbent franchisee, ScotRai ...

, while the ''

Caledonian Sleeper ''Caledonian Sleeper'' is the collective name for overnight Sleeping car, sleeper train services between London and Scotland, in the United Kingdom. It is one of only two currently operating sleeper services on the railway in the United Kingdom ...

'' service is taken over by

Serco Serco Group plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational military, defence, Healthcare, health, Space industry, space, private prison, justice, Human migration, migration, customer service, customer services, and transport company ...

* April 3 –

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

suspends

' train operating license following the SPAD incident at Wootton Bassett Junction on March 7. * April 5 – Reopening of

Tri-Rail Tri-Rail is a commuter rail service linking Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in Florida, United States. The ''Tri'' prefix in the name refers to the three counties served by the railroad: Palm Beach County, Palm Beach, Broward Count ...

Miami Intermodal Center Miami Intermodal Center (MIC) is an intermodal passenger transport, intermodal rapid transit, commuter rail, local bus, and intercity bus transportation hub in Miami-Dade County, Florida, just outside the Miami city limits near the Grapeland ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

June

* June 2 – Opening of

BRT Sunway Line The BRT Sunway Line is a bus rapid transit (BRT) line that is part of the Klang Valley Integrated Transit System servicing the southeastern suburbs of Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. It is the world's first all-electric Bus Rapid Transit system. ...

operated by RapidKL in

Subang Jaya Subang Jaya is a city in Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. It comprises the southern third district of Petaling. It consists of the neighbourhoods from SS12 to SS19, UEP Subang Jaya (USJ), Putra Heights, Batu Tiga as well as PJS7, PJ ...

. * June 6 – Opening of the

Union Pearson Express The Union Pearson Express (UP Express or UPX) is an airport rail link connecting Union Station (Toronto), Union Station in Downtown Toronto to Toronto Pearson International Airport. The UP Express began operation on 6 June 2015, in time for the ...

, an

airport rail link An airport rail link is a service providing passenger rail transport between an airport and a nearby city. Direct links operate straight from the airport terminal to the city, while other links require an intermediate use of a people mover or ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. * June 27 –

SNCF TGV La Poste The TGV La Poste were dedicated trainsets for high-speed freight and mail transportation by French railway company SNCF on behalf of the French postal carrier La Poste. The top speed of this TGV Sud-Est derivate was , making them the fastest fr ...

commits the last ride, making all high-speed freight services ended after more than 30 years operating.

July

* July 1 – Opening of the

Ring Rail Line The Ring Rail Line (, ; formerly ''Marjarata'') is a railway route in the area of the city of Vantaa, in the Greater Helsinki Metropolitan Area of Finland. It connects Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and the adjacent Aviapolis business and retail distri ...

Vantaa Vantaa (; , ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the north of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population of Vantaa is approximately . It is the most populous municipality in Finland. Vantaa is part of the Helsinki Metropoli ...

, Finland.

August

* August 22 – Phoenix

Valley Metro Rail Valley Metro Rail is a light rail system serving the Phoenix metropolitan area in Arizona, USA. The network, which is part of the Valley Metro public transit system, began operations on December 27, 2008. In , the system had a ridership of , ...

extends from Sycamore/Main Street to Mesa Drive/Main Street via the Central Mesa Extension.

September

* September 6 – Opening of the

Borders Railway The Borders Railway connects the city of Edinburgh with Galashiels and Tweedbank in the Scottish Borders. The railway follows most of the alignment of the northern part of the Waverley Route, a former double-track line in southern Scotland a ...

along the old

Waverley Route The Waverley Route was a railway line that ran south from Edinburgh, through Midlothian and the Scottish Borders, to Carlisle. The line was built by the North British Railway; the stretch from Edinburgh to Hawick opened in 1849 and the remaind ...

. * September 11 – Opening of KTM Komuter Northern Sector in

Penang Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman (Islam), Aman (دار الأمان; Arabic for 'The Safe Abode') and historically as Queda, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of ...

Perlis Perlis (Kedah Malay language, Kedah Malay (Perlis dialect): ''Peghelih'') is a Negeri, state of Malaysia in the northwestern coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It is the smallest state in Malaysia by area and population. The state borders the Thai ...

and Northern

Perak Perak (; Perak Malay: ''Peghok'') is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kel ...

. * September 12 – Opening of the MAX Orange Line in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. * September 13 –

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

34th Street–Hudson Yards opens to public, after a series of delays. * September 17 – Opening of the Ashkelon–Beersheba railway. * September 20 – Opening of one line of the

Addis Ababa Light Rail The Addis Ababa Light Rail () is a light rail system in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the first light rail and rapid transit in eastern and sub-saharan Africa. A line running from the city centre to industrial areas in the south of the city was ...

in capital-city of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

: the first light-rail system to be built in sub-saharan Africa. * September 26 –

Ningbo Rail Transit Ningbo Rail Transit, also known as the Ningbo Metro, is a rapid transit system serving the city of Ningbo, Zhejiang and its suburbs. Five metro lines are in operation and one more is being built inside the urban area of Ningbo, serving Haishu D ...

Line 2 opens connecting Lishe International Airport Station to

Qingshuipu Station Qingshuipu Station is an elevated metro station in Ningbo Ningbo is a sub-provincial city in northeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises six urban districts, two satellite county-level cities, and two rural coun ...

October

* October 16 – Completion of the first phase of

Rail Baltica Rail Baltica is an under-construction rail infrastructure project that is intended to integrate the Baltic states in the European rail network. Its purpose is to provide passenger and freight service between participating countries and improve ra ...

connecting

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. * October 31 - The

Sri Petaling Line , , The LRT Ampang Line and the LRT Sri Petaling Line are medium-capacity rail system, medium-capacity light rapid transit (LRT) lines in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. The combined network comprises of tracks with 36 stations and was the ...

LRT expands from Sri Petaling to Kinrara, the line's first expansion since

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

November

* November 14 –

Eckwersheim derailment Eckwersheim is a commune, in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is around north of Strasbourg. On 14 November 2015 the commune was the location of a derailment during testing of a TGV train along the LGV Est hi ...

: A

TGV The TGV (; , , 'high-speed train') is France's intercity high-speed rail service. With commercial operating speeds of up to on the newer lines, the TGV was conceived at the same period as other technological projects such as the Ariane 1 rocke ...

train derails in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

while performing commissioning trials on a section of the

LGV Est The Ligne à Grande Vitesse Est européenne (East European High Speed Line), typically shortened to LGV Est, is a French high-speed rail line that connects Vaires-sur-Marne (near Paris) and Vendenheim (near Strasbourg). The line halved the tra ...

high-speed rail line killing 11. * November 17 –

Aab-e-Gum derailment The Aab-e-Gum derailment occurred on 17 November 2015 at , Balochistan, Pakistan when the ''Jaffar Express'' passenger train derailed. Twenty people were killed and 96 were injured. Accident The ''Jaffar Express'', travelling from to , derailed ...

: The '' Jaffar Express''

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line, as opposed to a freight train that carries goods. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) push-pull train, ...

traveling from

Quetta Quetta is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is the ninth largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 1.6 million in 2024. It is situated in the south-west of the country, lying in a ...

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, derails killing 20 and injuring almost a hundred others.

December

* December 11 – The first phase of the

Nanning–Kunming High-Speed Railway Nanning–Kunming high-speed railway (formerly known as the Yunnan–Guangxi high-speed railway) is a high-speed railway connecting Nanning and Kunming, respectively the capitals of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province. It has ...

, connecting

Nanning Nanning; is the capital of the Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in South China, southern China. It is known as the "Green City (绿城) " because of its abundance of lush subtropical foliage. Located in the South of Guangxi, Nanning ...

to Baise,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, opens. * December 13 – Apperley Bridge railway station reopens, fifty years after the original station was closed. * December 27 –

Downtown MRT line The Downtown Line (DTL) is a medium-capacity Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore), Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line in Singapore. It runs from Bukit Panjang MRT/LRT station, Bukit Panjang station in the north-west of the country towards Expo MRT station, ...

Stage 2 opens. * December 30 – Construction begins on the

Line 3 (Yinfeng Line) in

Unknown date

* – Conclusion of joint project between

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

to build 5,000 km freight link.

Break-of-gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally canno ...

arrangements to be confirmed.

References

{{2015 railway accidents