2 November | •
| Shiodome Station of Oedo Subway Line and Yurikamome New Transport opened at 31-ha Shiodome redevelopment site in Tokyo |
3 November | •
| Ferry carrying over 200 people sank off coast of Ambon in Indonesia, drowning five and leaving 73 missing |
6 November | •
| One of several firefighters on tracks of JR West Tokaido Line in Osaka's Yodogawa Ward hit and killed by Super Haku 11 express while responding to emergency call |
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| Luxair Fokker 50 crashed near Findel airport in Luxembourg, killing 18 of 22 passengers and crew |
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| Express sleeper train bound for Vienna from Paris caught fire in Nancy, eastern France, killing 12 passengers |
7 November | •
| Light plane carrying 10 people crashed shortly after takeoff on Indonesia island of Kalimantan (Borneo), killing seven passengers and crew |
11 November | •
| Light plane owned by Philippine Laoag International Airlines crashed into Manila bay shortly after takeoff from Manila Airport, killing six passengers |
12 November | •
| First carriage for Tobu Kyuryo Line, Japan's first commercial High Speed Surface Transport (HSST) maglev unveiled at test line in Nagoya. Maglev to run on 8.9-km line linking Fujigaoka Station of Nagoya Subway and Yakusa Station of Aichi Loop Line near site of EXPO 2005 Aichi |
13 November | •
| Lequios Airlines announced plan to begin twice-daily return service between Haneda and Naha (Okinawa) starting 1 June 2003 using Boeing 767 |
20 November | •
| Kobe Municipal Transportation Bureau announced start of female-only cars on all Kobe City Subway (30.6 km) services from 16 December |
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| Odakyu Electric Railway announced launch of Odakyu Good Pass linking automated ticket gates to mobile phone email function from 3 February 2003 |
27 November | •
| JR West signed agreement with Shiga and Fukui prefectures to convert 44 km of JR West's Hokuriku and Kosai lines to DC power with worked scheduled to begin in late FY2006 |
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| Alitalia Airlines plane with 74 passengers and crew bound for Paris from Bologna hijacked by Italian before making emergency landing at Lyon Airport where hijacker apprehended |
1 December | •
| Morioka–Hachinohe 96.6-km extension of Tohoku Shinkansen opened, extending shinkansen service from Tokyo to Hachinohe in northern Aomori Prefecture in just 2 hours and 56 minutes |
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| Rinkai Line belonging to Tokyo Waterfront Area Rapid Transit extended 4.4 km from Tennozu Isle to Osaki, linking Shin Kiba and Osaki with connections to JR East's Saikyo Line |
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| Tail of Airbus A300-600 belonging to Japan Airlines System brushed main wing of A340-600 belonging to Lufthansa while taxiing on temporary runway at New Tokyo International Airport (Narita) |
3 December | •
| Bureau of International Exposition (BIE) named Shanghai as host for 2010 World Expo |
5 December | •
| Groundbreaking ceremony held for 7.1-km rail–air link between Natori Station on JR Tohoku main line and Sendai Airport with opening scheduled in FY2006 |
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| Lufthansa announced start of world's first onboard broadband Internet service for passengers from 15 January 2003 |
9 December | •
| UAL parent company of United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 protection under Federal Bankruptcy Code with debts totalling about ¥2,800 billion |
11 December | •
| As part of transport reforms, Japan's House of Councillors passed Tokyo Subway Company Law, Independent Administrative Institution Railroad Construction/Operation Facility Construction Support Organization Law and other laws, dissolving Teito Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) on 1 April 2004 and establishing Tokyo Subway |
13 December | •
| Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MLIT) published Railway Consumer Report on homepage of Railway Bureau to provide statistics on JRs and other major private railways in Japan |
14 December | •
| Norwegian-flagged car transporter carrying 2862 luxury cars collided with Cuban-flagged container ship near Dover in North Sea and sank without loss of life |
16 December | •
| Overloaded ferry capsized in river near Robertsport in Liberia, drowning at least 48 people |
18 December | •
| JR West announced IC Operating CArd (ICOCA) prepaid card and commuter pass to be adopted at about 250 stations in Kansai area in 2003 |
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| Large overloaded boat capsized on Para River in Amazon, drowning 33 people and leaving about 40 missing |
20 December | •
| Boeing Corporation cancelled development of next-generation Sonic Cruiser planned to travel close to speed of sound |
23 December | •
| Antonov 140 passenger plane crashed outside Isfahan in central Iran, killing 46 passengers and crew |
24 December | •
| Opening ceremony held to commemorate opening of first 8.3 km of planned Delhi Metro partly financed by Japanese ODA grant aid and using Korean-built carriages |
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| MLI T announced Global Tourism Strategy to increase 4.77 million foreign visitors to Japan in 2001 to 8 million by 2007 |
25 December | •
| Ceremony held at Ruzhino Station on eastern end of Trans-Siberian Railroad to celebrate full electrification of entire 9300 km of line |
31 December | •
| German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji took ride on 30-km Shanghai MAGLEV (world's first commercial MAGLEV) scheduled to open in March 2003 and linking Pudong International Airport and Yang Road Station in 8 minutes at speeds up to 430 km/h |
2 January | •
| National Police Agency reported 8326 traffic fatalities in 2002 (down 421 from 2001 and half worst-ever figure of 16,765 in 1970) |
3 January | •
| JR East announced plan for joint use of its SUICA commuter/passenger pass and JR West's ICOCA to be introduced by late 2004 |
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| Passenger and cargo trains collided at Ghatnandur Station in western India, killing 18 and injuring about 40 |
4 January | •
| Talgo express train derailed near Albacete in central Spain, killing two passengers and injuring about 20 |
6 January | •
| Boeing announced deliveries totalling 381 civilian aircraft in 2002 (down 28% from 2001) blaming fall on impact of 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks and long airline recession |
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| Commuter train collided with truck on crossing in Burbank near Los Angeles, killing truck driver and injuring at least 30 train passengers |
8 January | •
| Turkish Airlines RJ100 passenger plane crashed on landing at Diyarbaki in southeastern Turkey, killing 75 out of 80 passengers and crew |
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| Small Air Midwest aircraft crashed after takeoff in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 passengers and crew |
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| Narita Airport introduced test check-in system using personal bio-data such as iris pattern and face contour for personal identification |
9 January | •
| Bus fell into ravine in jungle, southeast of Quito, Ecuador, killing at least 12 and injuring 27 |
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| Wreckage of Peruvian Fokker F28 carrying 46 passengers and crew found in Amazon jungle with no survivors |
12 January | •
| Groundbreaking ceremony held on Lantau Island for Hong Kong Disneyland with planned opening in FY 2005–06 |
17 January | •
| US Department of Transportation conditionally approved alliance of Delta, Northwest, and Continental airlines with cooperation to include code sharing on international and domestic flights |
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| MLIT approved application by Echizen Railway to take over operations of Keifuku Electric Railway with both currently shut lines to return to service in late 2003 |
21 January | •
| Tokyo Immigration Bureau announced that 24.506 million people left and entered Japan via Narita Airport in 2002 (up 12% over previous year and highest number since airport opened in 1978) |
23 January | •
| Consortium of seven Japanese companies won ¥100-billion contract to build high-speed section at northern end of Taiwan Shinkansen with construction planned to start in October 2005 |
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| JR Freight announced start of test runs of prototype M50 express container train dubbed Super Rail Car consisting of 12 wagons to carry 28 special small-lot containers with locomotive at each end |
25 January | •
| Eight-car subway train on London Underground Central Line derailed and collided with platform at Chancery Lane Station, injuring 30 passengers |
26 January | •
| Chartered China Airlines B-747 became first plane from Taiwan to land on mainland China at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport |
31 January | •
| Four-car commuter train derailed near Sydney, Australia, killing 9 and injuring 15 |