Time Line - 1994

Last Year | Next Year

• April 17: The north tube of the Detroit River railroad tunnel is re-opened after a $27.5 million clearance project. The new dimensions of the tunnel allow 19' 6"double-stack railroad cars to use the tunnel. [MT/SOO-S/1994]

• April 30: The Norfolk Southern ended Detroit River car ferry operations when the Cassidy and the barge Windsor departed the CP slip in Windsor. [KB]

• May 5: Amtrak begins running passenger trains to Pontiac from Detroit and Chicago. [MRC-4/1995]

• May: The CP Rail station in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is damaged by fire. It is demolished on August 24, 1994. [MRC-2/1995]

• Summer: The Leelanau Scenic Railroad is no more, as a truck hits one of the line bridges and the railroad folded. The right of ways are turned into bike trails. [MRC-4/1995]

• October 1: The former Detroit & Mackinac depot in Alpena is heavily damaged by fire. The depot will be razed on December 19, 1996. [MRC-4/1995]

• October 27: The Fourth Street interlocking at Three Rivers is removed. This was the crossing of the Air Line Division (to Niles) and the Kalamazoo branch.

• October: The Huron & Eastern Ry. has rail-banked approximately 11 miles of the line between Ruth and Harbor Beach, MI (formally part of the Pere Marquette's Harbor Beach Subdivision). [C&OHS-10/94]

• December 8: Crews from both sides break through to create the new Port Huron-Sarnia international railroad tunnel. [MRC-2/1995]

  ---

• CSX car float operation at Port Huron ties up for the last time.  The car float operation began in 1902. [MRC-2/1995]

• NS shuts down its steam program.  N&W 611 is placed in a museum in Roanoke, Virginia. [MRC-2/1995]

• Lake States Railway vacates the former D&M Tawas City shops, moving maintenance operations to the roundhouse at Alpena. [MRC-2/1995]

• The Alanson & Petosky (former GR&I/PRR) closes.[MRC-4/1995]

• Lake State Railway abandons the Paxton Branch. The route, which went from Alpena to an open pit rock quarry at Paxton formally went west to Hillman. [MRC-4/1995]

 Time line Key:

• Railroad event in Michigan
• Event relating to mining
• Event related to car ferries
• Event outside of Michigan
• Improvement in Technology
• Railroad built or extended
• Railroad abandoned and/or removed
• Economic panic or depression