1986 in rail transport

Events

January 1 - The Soo Line Railroad fully absorbs the Milwaukee Road after attempting to operate it as a subsidiary railroad.
January 3 - Vancouver's SkyTrain begins operations between the waterfront and New Westminster.

February 8 - 23 people are killed in the Hinton train collision when a Via Rail passenger train collides with a Canadian National freight train near Hinton, Alberta.
February 17 - Class 59 Co-Co diesel locomotives built by EMD for Foster Yeoman introduced into heavy freight service on British Rail, the first US-built diesel locomotives to operate regularly on the English network.

March 3 - Shin-Narashino Station, on what is now JR East's Keiyō Line in Narashino, Chiba, Japan, is opened.
March 24 - Edinburgh–Bathgate line in Scotland reopened to rail passengers.
March 25 - Conrail makes its initial public offering of stock starting at US$28 per share.

April 1 - The Prince and Princess of Wales open Heathrow Terminal 4 tube station on London Underground's Piccadilly line. Trains do not start serving the station until April 12, when the corresponding terminal starts handling flights.

July 24 - The Interstate Commerce Commission denies the merger of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific, citing an excessive amount of parallel track as one reason for the denial.
July 26 - The Lockington rail crash at Lockington, Humberside, England occurs when a van is struck on a level crossing. Eight passengers on the train, and a boy of 11 in the van, lose their lives.

September 5 - The Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad begins operations in Minnesota and South Dakota.
September 5 - Portland, Oregon's light rail system, MAX, opens for service.
September 8 - The Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad becomes the last common carrier freight railroad in America to cease using steam locomotives as primary power when the dry-pipe in its Canadian Locomotive Company 2-8-0 No. 17 steamer collapses.
September 14 – The Toei Shinjuku Line is extended from Funabori to Shinozaki in Tokyo, Japan; the third extension of the line since opening in 1978.
September 19 - Two high speed trains collide near Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, in the Colwich rail crash; the driver of one of the two trains was the only fatality of this accident.

October 1 – Opening of the first phase of the Kintetsu Keihanna Line in Osaka, Japan, between Nagata Station and Ikoma Station.
October 31 - Closure of the "Corkickle Brake" serving a chemical works at Whitehaven, Cumbria, the last commercially operated standard gauge cable railway in the United Kingdom.

November 11 - Preserved steam locomotive British Railways Standard class 8 71000 Duke of Gloucester is recommissioned on the Great Central Railway following a 13-year restoration from part-dismantled condition.
November 15 - Australia's well known steam locomotive 3801 is recommissioned at the Hunter Valley Training Company in New South Wales.
November 21 - The Florida Central Railroad begins operations in Florida, United States.
November 27 - Oslo Central Station in Oslo, Norway is taken into use.

July 14 - Raymond Loewy, industrial designer who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad designing the shape of equipment such as the GG1.