19th century

20th century

• 1934 – Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's Pioneer Zephyr makes its "dawn-to-dusk" nonstop run between Denver, Colorado, and Chicago, Illinois.
• 1960 – The Pioneer Zephyr trainset is donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
• 1974 – The Aurora Trans Europ Express service based on existing first-class only Rapidos running between Rome and Naples, Italy, is introduced.^[1]

21st century

• 2001 – SNCF sets a new speed record in France when TGV train number 531 travels the 1067.2 km (663.1 miles) between Calais and Marseilles in 3 hours and 29 minutes at an average speed of 317.46 km/h (197.26 mph).
• 2005 – Genesee and Wyoming (G&W) announce that they have agreed to purchase the railroad operations of Rail Management Corporation (RMC). G&W will pay $243 million in cash and assume $1.7 million in company debt to gain control of 14 short line railroads from RMC across the southeastern United States, as of June 1, 2005. G&W already controls 24 other railroads in North America, South America and Australia.

The "Symphony of Light" performance at the opening of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

• 2006 – Berlin Hauptbahnhof is ceremonially opened by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who arrived together with transport minister Wolfgang Tiefensee in a specially chartered InterCityExpress from Leipzig.