In 2018, 1746 accidents were recorded, a 2% improvement compared with 2017 and the lowest number observed since data collection began in 2006.

Three new members - Russian Railways (RZD), Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Railways (RAS-EL), and Korea Railway Research Institute (KRRI) - have joined the UIC database in 2019. However, there were 2361 accidents on these networks in 2018, increasing the total to 4107.

Causes of railway accidents in 2018

The report states that 74% of accidents were caused by trespassing on railway infrastructure and 15% were caused by accidents at level crossings with new member data exacerbating these figures. Less than 1% of accidents involved people being struck on a platform or falling from a train or station platform. 7% of accidents are attributable to internal causes relating to technical or organisational failures or human factors within the railway operational system. The remaining 2% were caused by weather or environmental conditions.

The railway system remains particularly vulnerable to the behaviour of third parties, which represented 97% of the fatalities recorded in 2018.

“It is imperative that public authorities play their part in promoting education and raising awareness of risk and continue their efforts to protect the railways from uncivil behaviour by third parties, just as they have done for road transport for many years,” the UIC says.

There were 123 collisions and derailments in 2018, a figure slightly above the historic low recorded in 2016 despite the inclusion of the new members data. Only 12 accidents resulted in fatalities with three serious accidents accounting for 82% of the 118 victims. The other 111 accidents only had financial or traffic-related consequences.

As part of the study, the UIC includes the Global Safety Index, which weights each accident recorded according to the cause, type, frequency and victim category. The safety index is continuing to decline over time and reached 8.28 in 2018. The UIC safety index for the new members was 6.9 and the total of 15.18 is now the new GSI reference value.

To see the complete report, click here.

Members of UIC’s safety database

ADIF (Spain)
ADIF-AV (Spain)
CFL (Luxembourg)
CFR-SA (Romania)
CIE (Ireland)
DB AG (Germany)
Eurotunnel (France and Britain)
HZ (Croatia)
Network Rail (Britain)
Infrabel (Belgium)
IP (Portugal)
Bane Nor (Norway)
MAV (Hungary)
ÖBB (Austria)
PKP (Poland)
ProRail (Netherlands)
RAI (Iran)
SNCF Réseau (France)
RFI (Italy)
SBB (Switzerland)
SZ (Slovenia)
SZDC (Czech Republic)
TCDD (Turkey)
Trafikverket (Sweden)
ZSR (Slovakia)
New members:
RZD (Russia)
RAS-EL (Greece), and
KRRI (Korea).