crews on the Channel Tunnel from both England and France break through the last amount of rock separating the two tunnels, forming the first land link between the two countries for around 8,000 years. December 31 – Minsk Metro's Avtozavodskaya Line opens between Traktornyi Zavod and Frunzenskaya. Unknown date David L. Gunn steps down from leadership of the New York City Transit Authority. Robert J. Ritchie succeeds William W. Stinson as president of Canadian Pacific Railway. The Gateway Western Railway begins operations over former Chicago and Alton Railroad tracks between Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. Accidents Deaths References (February 2002), Flags fall in corporate shuffles, Trains Magazine, p. 17.