1959 in rail transport

January events

 * January 4 - Passenger service resumes on the Strasburg Rail Road in Pennsylvania for tourists.
 * January 5 - Foulridge railway station closes on the Midland Railway (originally the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway) in Lancashire, England.

February events

 * February 28 - The Eastern Region of British Railways closes most of the former Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway.

March events

 * March 28 - The Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto Railway, the last interurban railroad in Canada, operates its last revenue service.

April events

 * April 3 - Construction begins on Japanese National Railways’ Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Osaka and Tokyo.
 * April 4 - Maine Central Railroad ends passenger service to Samoset destination hotel in Rockland, Maine.
 * April 25 - Opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway encourages improved ice-breaking on the Saint Lawrence River and initiates declining winter freight volume on Canadian railways east of Montreal.
 * SAFEGE test monorail built in France.

May events

 * May - The Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway runs its last train, ending 62 years of service.
 * May 28 - A passenger train in Indonesia derails and falls into a ravine, killing 85 people and injuring 47 in the Tasikmalaya area of West Java; sabotage is suspected.

June events

 * June 9 - The Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Railroad, interurban railway serving Chicago's western suburbs, ceases freight operations, thus bringing an end to all of the railroad's operations.
 * June 15 - The Disneyland Monorail System built by Alweg opens, making it the first daily operating monorail system in the western hemisphere.
 * June 21 - Soo Line 2719 hauls the last of Soo Line Railroad's steam locomotive-powered trains in revenue service on a round-trip excursion between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Ladysmith, Wisconsin.

July events

 * July 1 - Colorado Railroad Museum opens in Golden.
 * July 14 - Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) 0-6-0 number 5244, class B-6sb, becomes the last steam locomotive to operate on the PRR.
 * July 18 - The last steam locomotive runs on the Nickel Plate Road as a pair of 0-8-0 switchers are called out to cover a traffic surge.
 * July 27 - Southern Pacific Company opens new embankment replacing Lucin Cutoff trestle across Great Salt Lake, Utah.

August events

 * August 25 - Baltimore and Ohio Railroad opens Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge over Staten Island Sound in the United States.
 * August 30 - Streetcar service in Montreal, Quebec, Canada is discontinued.

October events

 * October 6 - The Carmelit, Haifa's underground funicular railway, opens.
 * October 12 - First R28 (New York City Subway car) enters service, from the last batch of passenger cars that the American Car and Foundry Company is to build.
 * October 28 - The Canadian National Railway line between St. Felicien and Chibougamau, Quebec, opens.

November events

 * November 2 - The Pacific Electric Watts Line, then under operation by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, is discontinued. The service is replaced with buses.

December events

 * December 1 - The Virginian Railway is merged into the Norfolk and Western Railroad.
 * December 29 - First section of Lisbon Metro (Metropolitano de Lisboa) opens in Lisbon, Portugal, first metro (subway) system in the country.

Unknown date events

 * General Electric announces that it will begin manufacturing diesel locomotives on its own.
 * Israel Railways officially withdraws all steam locomotives; the last, Baldwin-built Palestine Railways H class 4-6-0 no. 901, surviving in traffic into the following year.

May births

 * May 1 - Ning Bin, Chinese signalling control systems engineer (died 2019).

August deaths

 * August 26 - William Valentine Wood, President of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1941-8 (born 1883).