1903 in rail transport

• January 20 – The Grand Trunk Western Railroad opens a passenger depot in Lansing, Michigan.
• January 28 – Esmond Train Wreck: fourteen people are killed when the Crescent City Express (No. 8, bound for Benson, Arizona) collides head-on with the bound Pacific Coast Express (No. 7, bound for Tucson).

• February 12 – North British Locomotive Company established as a locomotive builder in Glasgow, Scotland, by merger of Dübs & Company, Neilson, Reid & Company, and Sharp, Stewart & Company.{{cite book|first=James W.|last=Lowe|title=British Steam Locomotive Builders|location=Cambridge|publisher=Goose and Son|year=1975|isbn=0-900404-21-3}} In April it receives its first new order for steam locomotives, from India.{{cite book|first1=Murdoch|last1=Nicolson|first2=Mark|last2=O'Neill|title=Glasgow: Locomotive Builder to the World|place=Edinburgh|publisher=Polygon|year=1987|isbn=0-948275-46-4}}

• March 3 – Baker valve gear for steam locomotives is first patented in the United States.{{cite journal|url=http://steamtraction.farmcollector.com/Farm-life/AD-BAKER-COMPANY-INCIDENTS.aspx?page=4|title=Remembering the A.D. Baker Company|last=Blake|first=LeRoy W.|date=May–June 1979|journal=Farm Collector|page=4|accessdate=2012-07-09|archive-date=2012-05-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510141722/http://steamtraction.farmcollector.com/Farm-life/AD-BAKER-COMPANY-INCIDENTS.aspx?page=4|url-status=dead}}

• April 7 – Apalachicola Northern Railroad, later to become AN Railway, is chartered.

• May 3 – The Mersey Railway, operating between Birkenhead and Liverpool by tunnel beneath the River Mersey, England, converts from steam to electric traction.{{cite book|author=Gahan, John W.|title=The Line Beneath the Liners – a hundred years of Mersey Railway sights and sounds|year=1983|publisher=Countyvise|location=Birkenhead|isbn=0-907768-40-7}}
• May 13 – The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad (later to become part of Chicago & North Western Railway) begins passenger train service to Casper, Wyoming.{{cite news|work=Casper Star-Tribune|date=June 22, 2005|url=http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/06/22/news/casper/a2e0ab59d0ef19c0872570270020fd84.txt|title=BP Amoco Timeline|accessdate=June 22, 2005}}
• May 25 – The Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad opens, becoming the first railroad in the United States to use an electrified third rail to power its trains.

• July – Regular passenger traffic from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok over the Trans-Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railways begins.
• July 1 – Opening of the Albula Railway portion of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) (metre gauge) in Switzerland, passing through the Albula Tunnel, the highest of the principal Alpine tunnels at 1370 m.{{Marshall-GuinnessRail}}{{page needed|date=October 2016}}
• July 13 – Danbury Union Station in Danbury, Connecticut, on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, opens.{{cite web|author=Gulder, Bill|url=http://www.danbury.org/drm/history/DRM-history-1.html|title=A Brief History of the Danbury Railway Museum|accessdate=2005-07-12|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050725081841/http://www.danbury.org/drm/history/DRM-history-1.html|archivedate=2005-07-25|url-status=live}}
• July 27
• Construction begins on the Baghdad Railway with the {{convert|200|km|adj=on}} segment between Konya and Bulgurlu in the Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey).{{cite web|date=2004-12-01|url=http://www.trainsofturkey.com/w/pmwiki.php/History/CIOB|work=Trains of Turkey|title=Baghdad Railway|accessdate=2005-07-22}}
• Glasgow St Enoch rail accident, Scotland: sixteen killed when a train crashes into the buffers.

• August 10 – Paris Metro train fire, France: electric fire on Paris Métro at Couronnes; 84 killed.
• August 17 – The Great Western Railway becomes the first British railway company to operate its own road motor services (i.e. buses), between Helston and The Lizard in Cornwall.{{cite book|last=Cummings|first=John|title=Railway Motor Buses and Bus Services in the British Isles 1902-1933, volume 2|publisher=Oxford Publishing Company|year=1980|location=Oxford|isbn=0-86093-050-5}}

Image:Old 97 wreck at Stillhouse Trestle in Virginia - 1903 (2).jpg a few days after the accident.]]

• September 27 – Wreck of the Old 97, Danville, Virginia, United States: A southbound Southern Railway passenger train derails on a trestle in Danville; eleven people are killed.{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52537703/the-anglo-saxon/| title=Many People Killed| newspaper=The Anglo-Saxon| location=Rockingham, NC| date=October 1, 1903| page=5| via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52538234/the-topeka-state-journal/| title=Nine Are Killed| newspaper=The Topeka State Journal| location=Topeka, KS| date=September 28, 1903| page=1| via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}

• October – Experimental electric trains, built by AEG and Siemens & Halske, reach 210.2 km/h (130.6 mph) between Marienfelde and Zossen in Germany.
• October 1
• The first railway in Norway rebuilt to double track, from Bryn to Lillestrøm on the Hovedbanen, is opened.{{cite book|author=Norsk Jernbaneklubb|author-link=Norsk Jernbaneklubb|title=Banedata '94|isbn=82-90286-15-5|year=1994|language=Norwegian}}
• The Gold Coast Government Railway is extended from Obuasi to Kumasi.
• October 21 – Howard Elliott succeeds Charles Sanger Mellen as president of Northern Pacific Railway.Railway Age Gazette (August 1, 1913) pp. 177-8.
• October 26 – The Key System begins operating their first streetcar-ferry service, the Berkeley line in Berkeley, California.{{Cite book |last=Demoro |first=Harre W. |url=https://archive.org/embed/keyroutetransbay0000demo |title=The Key Route: Transbay Commuting by Train and Ferry, Part 1 |publisher=Interurban Press |year=1985 |isbn=0-916374-66-1 |series=Interurbans Specials |volume=95 |location=Glendale, California |pages=17–20 }}
• October 31 – The Purdue Wreck, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA: A Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis Railway football special carrying the Purdue University football team and fans to the annual game with Indiana University collides with a coal train. Fourteen of the team and three other passengers are killed.

Image:KSR Train on a big bridge 05-02-12 71.jpeg]]

• November 9 – The {{RailGauge|2ft6in}} gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway opens in India.{{cite web|author=Northern Railways of India|url=http://ksr100.com/History.asp|title=Kalka-Shimla Railway|accessdate=November 8, 2005|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20051118111332/http://ksr100.com/History.asp|archivedate=November 18, 2005}}

• December 14 – The New York, New Haven and Hartford introduces the all-parlor car Merchants Limited between Boston and New York City.{{Lynch-New Haven passenger| page=31}}

• The British Engineering Standards Committee draws up specifications for eight standard steam locomotive designs for the broad gauge Indian Railways.{{cite web|first=R.R.|last=Bhandari|title=Steam in History|publisher=Indian Railways Fan Club|url=http://www.irfca.org/articles/isrs/isrs082004-steam-history.html|year=2000|accessdate=2010-10-07| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20100926150918/http://irfca.org/articles/isrs/isrs082004-steam-history.html| archivedate= 26 September 2010 | url-status= live}}
• Southern Pacific Railroad gains 50% control of the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles, California.
• The Wilkes-Barre & Hazleton Railway opens as the first railroad to have a guarded third rail.
• The provisions of the Railroad Safety Appliance Act, enacted in 1893, are extended to include all railroad cars whether or not the cars themselves are used in interchange service.
• Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway introduces the first 2-10-2 compound locomotives (built by Baldwin Locomotive Works) into service.{{cite book|first=Richard|last=Balkwill|author2=Marshall, John|author2-link=John Marshall (railway historian)|title=The Guinness Book of Railway Facts and Feats|edition=6th|location=Enfield|publisher=Guinness Publishing|year=1993|isbn=0-85112-707-X}}
• Edward Harriman becomes president of the Union Pacific.
• George Whale succeeds Francis William Webb as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London & North Western Railway.

{{1903 railway accidents|state=uncollapsed}}

• April 10 – Edward T. Reidy, last president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1957–1968.

• March 29 – Gustavus Franklin Swift, founder of Swift & Company which pioneered the use of refrigerator cars in late 19th century America (born 1839)

• July 27 – Frederick Kimball, American civil engineer who was instrumental in the formation of Norfolk & Western (born 1844).

• John Elfreth Watkins, railroad civil engineer and first curator for the Smithsonian Institution's railroad artifacts including John Bull.

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