November 1, 1855 – Gasconade Bridge train disaster – With more than 600 passengers aboard the Pacific Railroad excursion train celebrating the railway line's opening, outside St. Louis, Missouri the bridge collapsed and the locomotive plus 12 of the 13 attached cars plunged into the Gasconade River. Over thirty people died and hundreds were seriously injured.
March 12, 1855 – Desjardins Canal Bridge train disaster - Ninety passengers boarded a train from Toronto, Ontario en route to Hamilton, Ontario. As the train approached its final destination, the bridge spanning the Desjardins Canal collapsed as the train derailed. Seventy passengers died from trama, or drowning and exposure after being thrown into Cootes Paradise.
September 10, 1874 – Norwich (Norfolk, United Kingdom) disaster - 25 people were killed when a communication error caused a mail train and an express passenger train to meet in a head-on collision on a single-line section near Norwich, Norfolk. The accident led directly to the introduction of automatic control systems to manage traffic on single-track railways.
29 December1876 – Ashtabula River Railroad bridge disaster, Ashtabula, Ohio: The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Train No. 5, The Pacific Express, collapsed the Ashtabula River bridge dropping eleven passenger cars into a fire started by the car stoves. Of 159 souls onboard, 64 people were injured and 92 people were killed.
22 October1895 – derailment at Gare Montparnasse in Paris, express train overran buffer stop and crossed more than 30 metres of concorse before plummetting through a window.
April 12, 1909 – Gary, Indiana, United States: A westbound Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad train runs past a meet point and causes a head-on collision with the eastbound train.
June 19, 1909 – Shadyside, Indiana, United States: An eastbound Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad train runs past a meet point and causes a head-on collision with the westbound train.
1910s
December 24, 1910 – Hawes Junction train disaster. Busy signalman forgets about light engines on main line, and express signalled onto it.
June 22, 1918 – Hammond, Indiana: An empty troop train collides with a parked circus train. 86 killed, 127 injured.
July 9, 1918 – Great train wreck of 1918, Nashville, Tennessee: Two Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad trains collide head-on. 101 killed, 171 injured. Deadliest train accident in United States history.
November 1, 1918 – Malbone Street Wreck, New York, New York: A subway train derails on sharp curve in a tunnel killing 97 and injuring over 100.
July 6, 1944 – Troop train crash near Jellico, Tennessee. Passenger train derails due to excessive speed on defective track. 35 killed, 99 injured; all soldiers in U.S. Army enroute to deployment.
1986 – Colwich rail crash: High speed collision when one train fails to stop in time at a red signal, and obstructs a junction. Despite two locomotives being totally destroyed, the only death was one of the drivers.
February 8, 1986 – Hinton, Alberta, Canada: 23 lives lost when VIA Rail passenger train and CN freight train collide head-on.
December 23, 2001 – Charlotte, New York, United States: An incorrect brake application on a CSX local train that had stopped to perform switching at Kodak Park causes the train to run away and derail five miles later, destroying homes and businesses in the area.
November 6, 2004 – Ufton Nervet rail crash, United Kingdom: A High Speed Train hits a stationary car (an apparent suicide attempt) at 100mph and derails. Five train passengers and the drivers of both the train and the car are killed; over 100 passengers are injured.
January 6, 2005 – Graniteville train disaster, South Carolina, United States: Still under investigation by the NTSB; preliminary findings are that a turnout is left lined for a siding when it should have been lined for the mainline, causing a through freight train to collide with a parked train. [1] (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050106/ap_on_re_us/train_wreck)
January 12, 2005 – Fort St. John, Manitoba (a suburb of Winnipeg), Canada: Five cars of a CN freight train derail; as one of the cars was carrying propane, the area is evacuated. The tank car remains upright and intact, so local residents are allowed to return fairly quickly.
January 26, 2005 – Glendale train crash, California, United States: In a failed suicide attempt by an automobile driver, a southbound Metrolink double deck commuter passenger train collides with a car parked on a grade crossing and derails; the derailed train strikes the northbound Metrolink train on the other mainline track and a parked Union Pacific Railroad freight train on a siding. 11 passengers are killed, about 100 injured.
Securing railways is often more difficult than for other modes of transport because stations are designed with easy access and high capacity rather than security as their primary goals; most trains make many stops, rendering any sort of passenger screening difficult; and securing the tracks as they run through cities and the countryside is impractical.
The first railways in Great Britain (also known as wagonways) were built in the early 17th century, mainly for transporting coal from the mine to the water side where it could be loaded on to a boat.
Railways soon spread throughout the United Kingdom and through the world, and became the dominant means of land transport for nearly a century, until the invention of aircraft and automobiles, which prompted a gradual decline in railways.
The cause of the disaster was the state government's speed limit adjustments on the line.
The disaster occured prior to a New South Wales state election and, although complex, ultimately the blame for the disaster was placed on the state government's bid for another term in parliament as they did all they could, at risk of people's lives, to keep the trains on time.
The Eschede traindisaster in Germany had a similar collapse of its bridge.
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