Data from December 2025
Planned article update: December 2026
Highlights
In 2024, there were 1 507 significant railway accidents in the EU, with a total of 750 people killed and 548 seriously injured.
Despite the slight increase in 2022, the number of significant railway accidents has gradually decreased since 2010, with 722 fewer accidents in 2024 than in 2010 (-32.4%).
In 2024, close to two thirds of the fatalities from railway accidents in the EU involved unauthorised people on the tracks (65.6%) and more than one-quarter occurred at level crossings (25.5%).
Railway accidents, EU, 2010-2024
In 2024, 1 507 significant railway accidents were reported in the EU. A total of 750 people were killed in these accidents, while another 548 people were seriously injured. At EU level, the number of fatalities from railway accidents decreased gradually over the last 13 years, from 1 245 in 2010 to 750 in 2024, a fall by 39.8%. 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 with 2021 (+23.1%).
Suicides occurring on railways are reported separately. With 2 357 reported cases in 2024, suicides outnumbered the victims accounted for by railway accidents.
Eurostat disseminates data collected by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA). ERA consistently releases data before Eurostat. 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 decreased in 2024
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 4.4% and increased again by 171 in 2022 compared with 2021, to a total of 1 566 accidents (+12.3%). Railway safety has generally improved in the EU, with 722 fewer accidents in 2024 compared with 2010, a reduction of 32.4%. 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 2024 concerned all accident categories with the exception of two: the number of derailments fell by 21.3% to 63 accidents in 2024, and level crossing accidents by 19.4% to 345. All other categories increased: accidents to people by rolling stock in motion (excluding suicides) (+20.4%), fires in rolling stock (+29.4%), and collisions (+52.6%). The category 'other significant railway accidents' also increased to reach 114 accidents in 2024 (+18.8%).
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 2024 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 815 registered accidents representing 54.1% 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 345 accidents in 2024 (22.9% of the total). Together, these two categories represented 77% of the total number of railway accidents in the EU.
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Germany registered 366 accidents, the highest number of railway accidents among the EU countries, followed by Poland with 220. Together those two countries recorded more than one-third (38.9%) of all significant railway accidents in the EU in 2024. At some distance, France (140 accidents), Italy (103) and Romania (90) followed. By contrast, Ireland reported only 1 significant railway accident in 2024 (to people by rolling stock in motion) and Luxembourg only 2 accidents (1 accident to people by rolling stock in motion and 1 accident by collision).
Number of fatalities decreased in 2024 after successive rises
Figure 2 shows the number of people killed in railway accidents in the EU from 2010 to 2024. 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, and decreasing to 750 in 2024, showing a reduction of 39.8% 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%). In 2024, the number of fatalities recorded a decrease by 10.8% compared with 2023, to reach 750 fatalities.
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Figure 3 presents the number of rail deaths per thousand kilometres of railway tracks in 2024. A total of 5 countries registered 4 or more deaths per thousand kilometres of railway tracks: Portugal (6.2), Hungary (5.8), Slovakia (5.7), Lithuania (4.6) and Poland (4.3). At the other end, 5 countries registered one or less fatality per thousand kilometres of railway tracks (Austria, Spain, Finland, Estonia and Ireland) in 2024. Luxembourg and Slovenia registered no fatalities from railway accidents in 2024.
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Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_railvi), (rail_if_tracks)
More detailed information on railway safety, including accident and casualty indicators, can be found in ERA’s Annual Safety Overview report.
Most fatalities involved unauthorised people on railway premises
Focusing on 2024, fatalities in the category 'Unauthorised persons' (Table 1) remained the largest category of victims, with 492 cases (65.6% of the total number of people killed in railway accidents). The second largest category was 'Level crossing users' with 191 deaths (25.5%). Only a fraction of the registered fatalities was in the category ‘Railway passengers’. In most of the years for which harmonised data are available (i.e. from 2010 onwards), railway passengers 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 mainly 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 5.8% of the total number of deaths in the EU and 90.7% of passenger deaths. In 2024, the share of railway passengers in the total number of fatalities decreased to 2.1% (16 railway passengers killed), 38 less fatalities compared with 2023.
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Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_railvi)
Table 2 outlines the fatalities from railway accidents according to the type of accident. In 2024, close to three quarters (71.5%) of these fatalities in the EU were caused by 'Accidents to persons by rolling stock in motion', typically involving people who were unauthorised on the railway tracks and were hit by a moving train. Together with ‘Level-crossing accidents’, which caused 26.5% of fatalities, these accidents were responsible for 98% of all deaths occurring in railway accidents in the EU.
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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 (116 fatalities) in 2024. Together, the 5 EU countries Germany, Poland, Romania, Italy and France registered close to three quarters (71.8%) of the persons killed in 'Accidents to persons by rolling stock in motion'.
Fewer people seriously injured since 2010
Over the period 2010-2024, 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 11.2% 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 16.0% (594 injured people) in 2022. In 2023, the number increased slightly again by 3.0% to 612 injured people, to decrease by 10.5% in 2024 (548 injured people).
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Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_railvi)
Focusing on the year 2024, Table 3 illustrates the number of people injured in the different types of accidents. More than half of the seriously injured people were registered in ‘Accidents involving rolling stock in motion’ (301 injured people, 54.9% of the total), followed by ‘Level crossing accidents’ (169 people, or 30.8%). Germany (95 seriously injured people), Poland (34), France (26) and Italy (26) recorded the highest numbers of people injured in ‘Accidents to persons 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 62 people in 2024, of which 40 people were registered in Czechia. Out of the 25 EU countries with railways, only Ireland recorded no people seriously injured in train collisions in 2024.
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Source: Eurostat (tran_sf_railvi)
Suicides cost far more lives than accidents
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 2010-2024. 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 (-6.7%) while the highest increase was observed between 2021 and 2022 (+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 suicides significantly increased (+7.5%) while it showed a slight decrease in 2023 (-1.2%) and 2024 (-0.6%).
In 2024, 2 357 suicides in railways were reported, 14 less than in the previous year. With 688 recorded suicides in 2024, Germany accounted for almost one third (29.2%) of the EU total. There was also a significant number of suicides in France (267 recorded cases), the Netherlands (186) and Czechia (179).
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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 applied 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 available in the annually published Railway Safety Performance Report and online. 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.
The railway accident data collected by ERA data are located in the 'Transport safety (tran_sf)' section in Eurostat's online 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.
Figure 1 includes 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:
The 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 small 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).
A significant accident is defined as any accident involving at least one rail vehicle in motion, resulting in at least one killed or seriously injured person, or in significant damage to stock, track, other installations or environment, or extensive disruptions to traffic. Accidents in workshops, warehouses and depots are excluded. This definition is used by the UIC (Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer).
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 (Single European Railway area) by improving rail safety and interoperability. Since June 2019, ERA issues safety certificates and vehicle authorisations valid across multiple European countries. 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.
Footnotes
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- Transport, see:
- Transport
- Transport safety (tran_sf)
- Rail transport safety (tran_sf_rail)
- Rail accidents by type of accident (tran_sf_railac)
- Rail accidents victims by type of accident (tran_sf_railvi)
- Rail accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods (tran_sf_raildg)
- Suicides involving railways (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)
- Railway victims by type of accident - annual data (2004-2015) (rail_ac_catvict)
- Railway accidents by type of accident - annual data (2004-2015) (rail_ac_catnmbr)
- Accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods - annual data (2004-2015) (rail_ac_dnggood)
- Railway transport accidents – historical data (2004-2015) (rail_ac_h)
Thematic section
Publications
- Key figures on European transport - 2024 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
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 (EU) 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