Data from December 2024.
Planned article update: December 2025.
Highlights
In 2023, there were 1 567 significant railway accidents in the EU, with a total of 841 people killed and 569 seriously injured.
Despite the slight increase in 2022, the number of significant railway accidents has gradually decreased since 2010, with 662 fewer accidents in 2023 than in 2010 (-29.7%).
In 2023, more than half of fatalities from railway accidents in the EU involved unauthorised people on the tracks (58.4%) and more than one-quarter occurred at level crossings (26.6%).
Railway accidents, EU-27, 2010-2023
In 2023, 1 567 significant railway accidents were reported in the EU. A total of 841 people were killed in these accidents, while another 569 people were seriously injured. At EU level, the number of fatalities in railway accidents decreased gradually over the last 13 years, from 1 245 in 2010 to 841 in 2023, a fall by 32.4%. However, it should be noted that from 2019 to 2021, the decreases in railway accidents, fatalities and seriously injured people coincided with a sharp drop in passenger transport by rail caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The large increase in remote working and home schooling, combined with recommendations to avoid unnecessary travel during the pandemic, contributed to the rail passenger transport almost halving in the EU – see the article on railway passenger transport statistics for more details. With the end of the restrictions, rail traffic increased significantly, which can explain the increase observed in the number accidents and consequently in the number of fatalities in 2023 compared to 2021 (+23.1%).
Suicides occurring on railways are reported separately. With 2 371 reported cases in 2023, suicides outnumbered the victims accounted for by railway accidents.
Eurostat publishes data collected by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) in its free dissemination database. This information is also published by ERA. It should be noted that there are no railways in the EU countries Cyprus and Malta, nor in the EEA/EFTA country Iceland.
Number of railway accidents remained stable in 2023
1 more railway accident in the EU in 2023 compared with 2022 (+0.1%)
The number of significant railway accidents in the EU fell almost continuously between 2010 and 2020, with the only exceptions being a sharp increase in 2014 (+6.7%) and a slight increase in 2017 (+2.1%). In 2021, the number of significant accidents increased by (+4.3%) and increased again by 172 in 2022 compared with 2021, to a total of 1 566 accidents (+12.3%). Railway safety has generally improved in the EU, with 662 fewer accidents in 2023 compared with 2010, a reduction of 29.7%. Following the sharp increase in 2014, the decrease compared with the previous year was particularly marked in 2015 (-12.8%). The increase in accidents from 2021 to 2023 concerned all accident categories with the exception of two: the number of derailments fell by -12.5% to 70 accidents in 2023, and level crossing accidents by -6.8% to 399. All other categories increased: fires in rolling stock (+17.7%), accidents to people by rolling stock in motion (excluding suicides) (24.5%), and collisions (43.3%) to 139 accidents in 2023. The category 'other significant railway accidents' remained stable at 96 accidents.
Accident figures for EU countries are comparable from 2010 onwards, following the implementation of common definitions across all countries. Prior to 2010, Belgium, Poland and Slovakia generally reported all railway accidents instead of only significant accidents. As a result, there was a lower number of accidents in several categories from 2010 onwards compared with previous years. Looking at the detailed 2023 figures on significant railway accidents (Figure 1), the largest category at the EU level was accidents to people caused by rolling stock in motion, with the 843 registered accidents representing 54% of the total. Typically, these accidents involve people on railway tracks (unauthorised persons or trespassers) who are hit by a running train. Accidents at level crossings, including pedestrians, is the other main category, with a total number of 399 accidents in 2023 (25% of the total). Together, these two categories represented 79% of the total number of railway accidents in the EU.
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Germany registered 312 accidents, the highest number of railway accidents among the EU countries, followed by Poland with 233. Together those two countries recorded more than one-third (35%) of all significant railway accidents in the EU in 2023. At some distance, France (146 accidents), Romania (119) and Italy (113) followed. By contrast, Luxembourg reported only 3 significant railway accidents in 2023 (2 accidents to people by rolling stock in motion and one to people by level crossing) and Ireland only 5 accidents (all to people by rolling stock in motion).
The number of people killed in railway accidents in the EU was 32.5% lower in 2023 than in 2010
Figure 2 shows the number of people killed in railway accidents in the EU from 2010 to 2023. The total number of fatalities gradually declined from 1 245 people killed in railway accidents in 2010 to 683 in 2021, before increasing to 841 in 2023, showing a reduction of 32.5% over the period. With the exception of slight increases in 2013 (+3 fatalities) and 2016 (+12 fatalities), the number of people who lost their lives decreased year-on-year throughout the period 2010-2021. The strongest decrease was recorded from 2019 to 2020, with 115 fewer people killed in such accidents (-14.3%). The number of fatalities decreased again in 2021, with 4 fewer fatalities compared with 2020, but increased to 841 fatalities in 2023, an increase of 158 compared with 2021 (+23.1%).
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(number)
Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_railvi)
Figure 3 presents the number of rail deaths per thousand kilometers of railway tracks in 2023. The EU average of 2.5 masks wide differences between countries. A total of 5 countries registered 4 or more deaths per thousand kilometers of railway tracks: Greece (22.3), Slovakia (10.2), Portugal (5.9), Poland (4.2) and Hungary (4.0). The significant number of deaths in Greece is due to the ‘Tempi train crash’ happening in February 2023 accounting for 95% of the deaths. At the other end, 3 countries registered one or less fatality per thousand kilometers of railway tracks (Spain, Sweden, and Finland) in 2023.
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(per thousand km of railway tracks)
Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_railvi), (rail_if_tracks)
The overall trend in the data shows that travelling by railway is safe, with few fatalities among rail passengers. According to ERA's 2024 report on railway safety and interoperability, the rates of significant accidents, fatalities, and fatalities and weighted serious injuries (FWSIs) per million train-km have decreased substantially since 2010. [1] However, it should be noted that there are substantial differences between EU countries.
Most fatalities were unauthorised people on railway premises
The main type of accidents involved unauthorised peopleon railway premises
Focusing on 2023, fatalities in the category 'Unauthorised persons' (Table 1) remained the largest category of victims, with 491 cases (58.4% of the total number of people killed in railway accidents). The second largest category was 'Level crossing users' with 224 deaths (26.6%). Only a fraction of the registered fatalities were railway passengers. In most of the years for which harmonised data are available (i.e. from 2010 onwards), railway passenger fatalities represented only a marginal share (between 1% and 5%) of the people killed. The exceptions were years 2013 and 2023. In 2013, the 97 passengers killed in railway accidents represented 9% of the total. This was solely attributable to a railway accident in Santiago de Compostela in July 2013. The 79 fatalities from this accident represented all of Spain's fatalities in the category 'Railway passengers' and 81% of all railway passengers killed in accidents in the EU in 2013. In 2023, the 49 passengers killed in Greece (attributed to the Tempi train crash) represented 7.1% of the total number of death in the EU and 81.7% of passengers death. In 2023, the share of railway passengers in the total number of fatalities increase at 6.4% (54 railway passengers killed), 34 more fatalities compared with 2022.
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(number)
Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_railvi)
Table 2 outlines the fatalities from railway accidents according to the type of accident. In 2023, two-thirds (66%) of these fatalities in the EU were caused by 'accidents to persons by rolling stock in motion', typically involving people who are unauthorised on the railway tracks and are hit by a running train. Together with level-crossing accidents, which caused 26.4% of fatalities, these accidents were responsible for 92.4% of all deaths occurring in railway accidents in the EU.
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(number)
Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_railvi)
The number of people killed in 'accidents to persons by rolling stock in motion' was particularly high in Poland (118 fatalities) and Germany (100 fatalities) in 2023.Together, the 5 EU countries Germany, Poland, Romania, Italy and France registered more than two-thirds (69.7%) of the persons killed in 'accidents to persons by rolling stock in motion'.
Fewer people seriously injured since 2010
Significant reduction in people seriously injured in railway accidents since 2010, especially for railway passengers
Over the period 2010-2023, the number of people seriously injured in railway accidents at the EU level fell for all types of people (Figure 4). This trend is noticeable despite occasional year-to-year fluctuations. Whereas the average annual decrease in the total number of seriously injured people was 11.0% per year from 2010 to 2015, an increase of 14.0% in the number of injured people was observed in 2016 compared with 2015. The high number of injured railway passengers registered in 2010 was due to a severe train collision at Buizingen (Belgium) with 171 people seriously injured. In 2016, the number of injured passengers registered a significant increase compared with the previous year, due to a number of larger accidents involving passenger trains that were recorded across the EU. The number of seriously injured people fell again in 2017, but remained at the same level in 2018. However, the number of injured people from railway accidents fell significantly from 2018 to 2019 (-18.2% to 612 injured people) and from 2019 to 2020 (-23.5% to 468 injured people). In 2021, the number of injured people increased by 9.4% (512 injured people), and increased again by 15.8% (593 injured people) in 2022. In 2023, the number decreased slightly again by 4.2 % to 569 injured people.
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(number)
Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_railvi)
Focusing on the year 2023, Table 3 illustrates the number of people injured in the different types of accidents. Half of the seriously injured people were registered in accidents involving rolling stock in motion (347 injured people, 61% of the total), followed by level crossing accidents (186 people, or 32.7%). Germany (90 seriously injured people), Czechia (34), Poland (34), Italy (27) and France (18) recorded the highest numbers of people injured in accidents to people by rolling stock in motion. It should be noted that the comparison of seriously injured persons between countries may be slightly biased due to differences in reporting regimes.
Far fewer people were injured in other types of accidents. Train collisions were the cause of serious injuries to 27 people in 2023, of which 9 people were injured in accidents in Netherlands and 8 in Romania. Out of the 25 EU countries with railways, 18 recorded no people seriously injured in train collisions in 2023.
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(number)
Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_railvi)
Suicides cost far more lives than accidents
Suicides on the railways outnumber the number of people killed and seriously injured in accidents by far
Suicides occurring on railways are reported separately from people killed or injured in railway accidents. For the EU as a whole, the number of such suicides remained between 2 200 and 2 800 per year in the period 2010-2023. The highest number was recorded in 2012 with 2 734 suicides on railway premises. In the following years, the numbers fluctuated. The highest decrease was observed between 2012 and 2013, with -6.7% while the highest increase was observed between 2021 and 2022, with +7.5%. The number of suicides on railway premises has fallen consistently from 2017 to 2020 but registered a slight increase in 2021 (+1.4%). In 2022, the number of suicide significantly increased (+7.5%) which was not compensated by the slight decrease in 2023 (-1.2%).
In 2023, 2 371 suicides were reported, 30 less than in the previous year. With 690 recorded suicides in 2023, Germany accounted for almost one-third (29.1%) of the EU total. There was also a significant number of such suicides in France (265 recorded cases), Czechia (195) and the Netherlands (190).
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Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
The sources used for the statistics in this publication are data reported to the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA). Railway safety data have been collected by ERA since 2006 through the Common Safety Indicators (CSIs). These were introduced by Annex I to the Railway Safety Directive (Directive 2004/49/EC). EU Member States have a legal obligation to submit their CSI data to ERA. ERA publishes an overview of safety-related CSIs as soon as data have been consolidated. The CSIs data are reported to European Railway Agency Database of Interoperability and Safety ERADIS. The full set of CSI data is made available in the annually published Railway Safety Performance Report and online: ERA Knowledge Hub. Accident figures are reliable from 2010 onwards, following the strict application of standard definitions. In the past, Belgium, Poland and Slovakia typically reported all railway accidents instead of significant accidents only. This meant a lower count in several categories of accidents since 2010.
Eurostat has signed an agreement with ERA to disseminate these railway safety data through its free dissemination database. The data disseminated by Eurostat constitute a subset of the data available at ERA.
Railway accident data were also collected through Annex H to Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 on rail transport statistics. This Regulation has been recast and replaced by Regulation (EC) No 2018/643. The data collection through Annex H was phased out and replaced with the data collected by ERA. However, Türkiye continues to provide data according to Annex H of Regulation (EC) No 91/2003, as they do not have an agreement with ERA.
The railway accident data collected by ERA data are located in the 'Multimodal data (tran)' section under 'Transport safety (tran_sf)' in Eurostat's database. Historic data based on Annex H can be found in the section 'Railway transport - Historical data (2004-2015) (rail_ac_h)'.
Some differences may occasionally exist between these data, as ERA handles its own compilation procedures and quality checks. Also, whereas data reported to ERA are provided by the national safety authorities, data reported to Eurostat under the framework of Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 were reported by the national statistical institutes(NSIs). The NSIs might have depended on data from the same national safety authorities, but not necessarily.
Composition of EU aggregates:
EU: The European Union is composed of 27 Member States: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.
It should be noted that the EU Member States Cyprus and Malta have no railways.
Regarding the data for EFTA countries, Iceland has no railways, while Liechtenstein's railways are included in the Austrian data as they are operated by the ÖBB.
The tables include the Channel Tunnel as a separate entity, as data referring to railway accidents in the Channel Tunnel cannot be assigned to either France or the United Kingdom. EU aggregates do not include Channel Tunnel figures.
Some data for the most recent reference year may remain provisional for some time. This is linked to ongoing investigations and hence decisions whether to include or exclude certain accidents and or their categorisation.
Methodological notes:
Number of people killed and injured per country may vary from year to year because of major railway accidents that take place in different countries. For several EU Member States with a few number of fatalities, the rate of people killed per million inhabitants tend to fluctuate considerably from year to year meaning that the trend can only be seen over a longer time period (even if there was no major railway accident).
Context
National rail networks have different technical specifications for infrastructure – gauge widths, electrification standards and safety and signalling systems – which make it more difficult and costly to run a train from one country to another. EU policies exist to overcome such differences. Creating an integrated European railway area thus requires better technical compatibility – 'interoperability' – of infrastructure, rolling stock, signalling and other subsystems of the rail system. Procedures for authorising the use of rolling stock across the EU's rail network also need to be simplified.
The European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) helps promote interoperability and develop uniform technical standards, a process in which cooperation between EU countries and rail stakeholders is essential.
ERA, based in Lille/Valenciennes (France), is helping to build an integrated European railway area by improving rail safety and interoperability. Set up in 2006, it develops shared technical specifications and approaches to safety, working closely with stakeholders from the rail sector and national authorities, the EU institutions and other interested parties. Featuring a dedicated safety unit, the Agency also monitors and reports on rail safety in the EU.
Notes
- ↑ For further details, see ERA's Report on Railway Safety and Interoperability in the EU 2024.
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- Transport, see:
- Transport
- Transport safety (tran_sf)
- Rail transport safety (tran_sf_rail)
- Rail accidents by type of accident (ERA data) (tran_sf_railac)
- Rail accidents victims by type of accident (ERA data) (tran_sf_railvi)
- Rail accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods (ERA data) (tran_sf_raildg)
- Suicides involving railways (ERA data) (tran_sf_railsu)
- Rail transport safety (tran_sf_rail)
- Transport safety (tran_sf)
Data collected through Annex H of Regulation (EC) No 91/2003:
- Transport, see:
- Railway transport (rail)
- Railway transport – Accidents – Historical data (2004-2015) (rail_ac_h)
- Annual number of victims by type of accident (2004-2015) (rail_ac_catvict)
- Annual number of accidents by type of accident (2004-2015) (rail_ac_catnmbr)
- Annual number of accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods (2004-2015) (rail_ac_dnggood)
- Railway transport – Accidents – Historical data (2004-2015) (rail_ac_h)
Thematic section
Publications
- Key figures on European transport - 2023 edition
- European Union Agency for Railways (ERA): ERA publications
Methodology
- Rail transport safety (ESMS metadata file — tran_sf_rail)
- Eurostat/United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)/International Transport Forum (ITF): Illustrated Glossary for transport statistics, Fifth edition, 2019
External links
Legislation
Rail transport statistics:
- Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on rail transport statistics, amended by Commission Regulation (EC) 1192/2003. See Annex H.
- Regulation (EC) 91/2003 has been recast and replaced by:
- Regulation (EC) No 2018/643 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on rail transport statistics
Railway safety:
- Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety on the Community's railways (Railway Safety Directive), as amended by:
- Directive 2008/57/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the interoperability of the rail system within the Community
- Directive 2008/110/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 December 2008 amending the Railway Safety Directive
- Commission Directive 2009/149/EC of 27 November 2009 amending Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards Common Safety Indicators and common methods to calculate accident costs
- Directive 2004/49/EC has been repealed and replaced by:
- Directive (EU) 2016/798 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on railway safety
Common Safety Indicators:
- Commission Directive 2009/149/EC amending Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards Common Safety Indicators and common methods to calculate accident costs
- Commission Directive 2014/88/EC of 09 July 2014 amending Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards Common Safety Indicators and common methods to calculate accident costs
- Directives 2009/149/EC and 2014/88/EC have been repealed and replaced by:
- Directive (EU) 2016/798 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on railway safety
European Union Agency for Railways:
- Regulation (EU) 2016/796 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on the European Union Agency for Railways and repealing Regulation (EC) No 881/2004