1969 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1969.

Events

January events

• January – The PATCO Hi-Speedline, in southeastern Pennsylvania, opens.
• January 5 – Last trains over the Waverley Route from Edinburgh in Scotland to Carlisle in England.

February events

• February 16 – Căile Ferate Române, in Romania, completes its systemwide electrification project.

April events

• April 5 – The South Devon Railway at Buckfastleigh in England, reopens as a preserved steam railway, the Dart Valley Railway.

May events

• May 5 – The Lewes-Uckfield (or Wealden Line) railway line is closed under British Rail and Richard Beeching's Beeching Axe in East Sussex, England.
• May 6 – The Chicago Transit Authority's Englewood 'L' service is extended to the new Ashland/63rd terminal.
• May 7 – A northbound passenger train from London, England, bound for Aberdeen, Scotland, takes the curve in Morpeth too quickly and derails in the Morpeth rail crash (6 killed).
• May – Union Pacific Railroad takes delivery of General Motors Electro-Motive Division EMD DDA40X, the most powerful and largest diesel locomotive to date.

June events

• June – Seaboard Coast Line Railroad discontinues the Silver Comet passenger train service.

September events

• September 28 – The Dan Ryan rapid transit extension of the Chicago 'L' system is placed in operation between 17th and State Streets and 95th Street in the median of the Dan Ryan Expressway. The new Dan Ryan Line was originally combined with the Lake Street 'L' to form the West-South route (Lake-Dan Ryan) providing through service between 95th Street and Harlem Avenue, Forest Park, using the first of the 2200-series rapid transit cars (2201–2350) built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Dan Ryan Line now comprises the southern half of today's Red Line.

November events

• November 2 – Kansas City Southern's Southern Belle passenger train service between Kansas City, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, makes its final run.
• November 29 – Opening of standard gauge link between Broken Hill, New South Wales and Port Pirie, South Australia, completing the East–West rail corridor, Australia, on standard gauge between Sydney and Perth.

Unknown date events

• ALCO ceases new diesel locomotive manufacturing.
• The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway operates the last freight train on its subsidiary Grand Canyon Railway.

Deaths

May deaths

• May 2 – Donald Gordon, president of Canadian National Railway 1950-1966, dies (b. 1901).