This article will list events related to rail transport that are currently scheduled to occur in 2007. Please be aware that the actual dates that these events occur on may differ substantially from what is shown here.
Light rail is the successor term to tram (streetcar or trolley in North American English) in many locales, although the term is most consistently applied to modern or modernised tram or trolley operations employing features more usually associated with metro or subway operations, including exclusive rights-of-way, multiple unit train configuration and signal control of operations.
Light rail is generally powered by electricity, usually by means of overhead wires, but sometimes by a live rail, also called third rail (a high voltage bar alongside the track), requiring safety measures and warnings to the public not to touch it.
Light rail systems are generally cheaper to build than heavy rail, since the infrastructure does not need to be as substantial, and tunnels are generally not required as is the case with most metro systems.
Rail's share of the EU freight market has plunged from over 20 percent in 1970 to 8 percent in 2000 and is still falling as it loses traffic to trucks, barges and increasingly to short sea shipping.
There have been signs in the past few months, however, that rail's decline has finally flattened out and the industry is poised to recover market share from rival transport modes, especially trucking which is facing a new raft of regulatory, fiscal and environmental burdens that threaten to blunt its competitive edge.
The industry is also on the verge of a once-in-a-life boost with the opening in 2007 of the Betuwe line, a $5 billion cargo-only rail corridor running from Rotterdam, the world's biggest port and Europe's leading container hub, to the rail network in Germany, the continent's biggest freight market.
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