3 December |
• |
Domestically developed CRH380A high-speed train
marked record speed of 486.1 km/h on new Beijing-Shanghai high-speed Line (1318 km) between
Shanghai and Beijing, breaking own September
record of 416.6 km/h; The line is expected to open for commercial service in October 2011 |
4 December |
• |
Dagestan Airlines Tupolev 154 skidded off runway at
Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport during emergency
landing, killing 2 of 169 people onboard and injuring 80 others |
7 December |
• |
Seventh World Congress on High Speed Rail opened
in Beijing, China, under auspices of UIC (Chairman:
Yoshio Ishida (JR East Vice Chairman)) with theme of
spearheading green transport; first UIC meeting held outside Europe |
7 December |
• |
Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG) and Chinese Ministry of
Transport concluded joint agreement to cooperate more
closely in freight transport with aim of strengthening
freight infrastructure and building new transport routes between Europe and Asia |
7 December |
• |
Mitsubishi Electric announced order worth total of
US$32 million from Spanish rolling-stock maker CAF for
parts for subways in Mexico, bringing Mitsubishi’s share of this market to 70% |
8 December |
• |
Chinese Railways announced joint business venture
with French rolling-stock maker Alstom to jointly develop rolling stock and signalling system |
14 December |
• |
IATA announced 2011 profit forecast for world airlines
of US$9.1 billion, 40% year-on-year decrease due to
impact of drop in passenger numbers in Europe, and rising fuel costs |
15 December |
• |
Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and
Tourism (MLITT) working group on new linear maglev
shinkansen planned by JR Central announced interim
report on Southern Alps (Direct) Route, supporting JR
Central’s choice out of three routes with submission of findings to MLITT minister in Spring 2011 |
15 December |
• |
Light plane crashed in mountainous region of eastern Tibet, killing all 22 people onboard |
15 December |
• |
Small wooden fishing boat carrying some 80 asylum
seekers broke up on rocks in high seas off coast of
Christmas Island in Indian Ocean west of Australia, drowning at least 27 people with 41 others rescued |
16 December |
• |
Nippon Sharyo and Sumitomo Trading announced
US$58 million order for 18 diesel railcars to operate
on Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) system
in California; aim to obtain additional orders for 146
cars over 5 years from five railway operators including SMART |
16 December |
• |
Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
(METI) started operating Expressway bus return
services once each day between Tokyo International
Airport (Haneda) and Shinjuku Station West Exit and
Tokyo City Air Terminal (TCAT), powered by world-first high-pressure hydrogen fuel cell |
16 December |
• |
Head-on collision on snow-covered expressway
involving large tourist bus near Hangzhou City, China, left 6 people dead and more than 10 others injured |
17 December |
• |
Fujitsu and Boeing announced joint development of aviation parts management system using IC tags |
19 December |
• |
AVE High-speed Valencia Line (438 km) opened by
RENFE between Madrid and Barcelona, increasing total
Spanish high-speed network to 2056 km to become
longest in Europe and surpassing French network length of 1896 km |
20 December |
• |
Double-decker bus carrying 37 Thai tourists hit center
divide on expressway in Perak State, Malaysia, killing 27 people |
21 December |
• |
Honda announced successful test flight of executive
Hondajet now in development with length of 12.7 m and
wingspan of 12.1 m designed to carry 7 or 8 people with
range of 2100 km; first deliveries expected from second half of FY2012 |
22 December |
• |
Yiwan Railway Line (377 km) linking Chongqing City
and Yichang City, China, opened 100 years after
first proposal with 74% of length in tunnel and over
bridges and described as world’s most difficult railway construction project |
24 December |
• |
Bus carrying people returning home for Christmas in
west Ecuador overturned and rolled down cliff, killing 41 passengers and injuring more than 20 others |
25 December |
• |
Heavy truck slipped on snow-covered road in Fukushima
Prefecture, Japan, causing 12-km tailback with about 300 vehicles stranded all night |
25 December |
• |
Bus carrying people returning from funeral collided with
government bus in Uttar Pradesh State, northern India, killing 36 people and injuring 28 others |
27 December |
• |
Agricultural vehicle carrying 20 elementary children
on foggy road overturned into river in Hunan Province, China, killing 14 |
27 December |
• |
Tobu Rai lway announced name change for
Narihirabashi Station on Isezaki Line to Tokyo Skytree
Station to celebrate opening of Tokyo Skytree digital
communications tower in spring 2012 with station reform to support more customers visiting area |
29 December |
• |
Incheon Airport Railway (58 km) linking Kimpo
International Airport and Incheon International Airport
with Seoul Station, Korea, fully opened to complete
first (37.6 km) stage opened in March 2007 and
shortening through operations between Seoul and
Incheon to 43 minutes with links to KTX Korean highspeed train at Seoul |
30 December |
• |
Subway Line 5 (108 km) opened in north Beijing, China,
to extend total length of Beijing’s subways to 336 km, exceeding Tokyo’s 304 km |
31 December |
• |
Restructuring JAL announced redundancy notices for
80 pilots, 60 cabin crew and 30 support staff as part
of plans to downsize group staffing levels for 16,000 employees worldwide |
31 December |
• |
Record snow falls in Tottori and Shimane prefectures,
Japan, blocked roads and rail lines with New Year’s Day
services suspended between 18 stations on JR West’s San’in and Hakubi lines
|