May 2008 in rail transport

May 1 - May 3

May 4 - May 10

May 6

:* – Fortescue Metals Group has won another round in its long-running quest for third-party access to Pilbara railway lines. The Federal Court of Australia yesterday rejected Rio Tinto's claim that the National Competition Council should rely on a 1999 decision denying access to Robe River instead of considering Fortescue's recent application for access.

:* – The New Zealand government will pay NZ$665 million to buy back railway and sea ferry operations that were privatized in the 1990s. "The selling of our public rail system in the early 1990s and the running down of the asset afterward has been a painful lesson for New Zealand," Finance Minister Michael Cullen said yesterday.

:* – The Abu Dhabi emirate is planning to construct a railway system by the year 2015, to cope with the transportation problem of its ever increasing population, a senior transport official has said. The population of Abu Dhabi is expected to increase to more than three million people by 2030, and planners say it is 'a must' for Abu Dhabi, heavily reliant on a taxi service that often cannot cope with the demand, to have its own metro by 2015.

May 9

:* – Network Rail is fined a record ₤14 million by Britain's Office of Rail Regulation (ORR). The fine is in response to infrastructure development overruns in recent years. Although passenger groups and some train operating companies supported Network Rail's appeal to spend the money on future infrastructure projects, the ORR maintained the need for a financial penalty.

May 11 - May 17

May 13

:* – The toll in the trolley accident in the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu, India has risen to 3 with the death a railway employee succumbing to injuries in a private hospital here on Tuesday. Two persons were killed and six others injured on Sunday when they jumped from the trolley after its brakes failed at Katteri, between Coonoor and Mettupalayam.

May 18 - May 24

May 23

:* – The state court in Osnabrück, Germany, fines track manager Guenter Steinmetz €24,000 and his successor Joerg Metzner €20,000, for 23 counts of [...] and 11 counts of causing negligent injury in the 2006 Lathen maglev train accident. A third defendant, traffic superintendent Guenther Mueller, is expected to stand trial at a later date for his decision to clear the train to proceed when, in fact, the line was blocked.

May 25 - May 31

• Australia - Agreement to convert Seymour to Albury from one broad gauge and one standard gauge track to double track standard gauge, leaving Oaklands and intermediate stations as gauge orphans.

May 28

:* – An MBTA train on the Green Line collides with the rear of a second Green Line train that was stopped at a red signal. The crash happened around 6PM EDT between the Waban and Woodland Green Line stations on the Green Line's D Branch. The operator of one of the two trains was trapped within the train and subsequently died of her injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.

May 29

:* – Officials at Weyerhauser announce plans to divest the company of four railway operations as well as the Westwood Shipping Line. The four railroads include De Queen and Eastern Railroad, Columbia and Cowlitz Railway, Mississippi and Skuna Valley Railroad and Golden Triangle Railroad, which comprise trackage in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Washington. The sale would allow Weyerhauser to concentrate on its core business.

May 30

:* – The German Parliament votes to approve the sale of shares in the state-run railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB). Under the plan, private investors would be able to purchase up to 24.9% of DB, a plan that is expected to raise about €6 billion. While some officials, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, proposed selling up to 49.9% to private investors, the approved plan ensures that the German government will retain full operational control over DB.