1920 in rail transport
Events
January events
- January 28 – Groundbreaking commences to begin construction of the Cincinnati Subway.
February events
- February 23–March 4, May 4–29 - 1920 French railway strikes.
March events
- March 1 – Control of American railroads is returned to private ownership and administration with the disbandment of the USRA.
- March 18 – Fruit Growers Express is incorporated in the United States.
April events
- April 1 – Deutsche Reichseisenbahnen merges the German state railways.
May events
- May 15 – The Ministry of Railways of Japan is established.
June events
- June 13 – Baltimore and Ohio Railroad inaugurates passenger service to Detroit's Fort Street Union Depot as the first passenger train departs for Washington, DC.
July events
- July 5 - Portland–Lewiston Interurban carries its heaviest passenger load with trains to the Maine Statehood Centennial Exposition.
October events
- October 1 - Palestine Railways established to manage lines within British Mandatory Palestine, including the Jezreel Valley railway.
November events
- November – H. P. M. Beames succeeds Charles Bowen-Cooke as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway.
- November 20 – Work begins on the State Railway of Thailand to convert all track to meter gauge.
December events
- December 23 – The Kirkenes–Bjørnevatn Line in Norway takes electric traction into use.
Unknown date events
- William Sproule succeeds Julius Kruttschnitt as president of the Southern Pacific Company, parent company of the Southern Pacific Railroad. This is Sproule's second term as president.
- Government of India accepts recommendation of Sir William Acworth's East India Railway Committee that the government should take over management of the country's railways.
- Partition of the Ottoman Empire leads to abandonment of the Hejaz railway.
Births
April births
- April 16 – Alan Pegler, British railway preservationist.
- April 17 – James B. McCahey, Jr., president of Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad.
Deaths
July deaths
- July 22 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, heir to Cornelius Vanderbilt and president of the New York Central system.
October deaths
- October 18 – Charles Bowen-Cooke, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway 1909–1920.
November deaths
- November 17 – T. Jefferson Coolidge, president of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 1880–1881.
December deaths
- December 1 – Edward Ponsonby, 8th Earl of Bessborough, director of London, Brighton and South Coast Railway from 1895 and chairman of same from 1908.