How unsafe are Indian railway tracks ?

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At least six lives are lost everyday to unnatural accidents on railway tracks and crossings. Times of India reports, quoting statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau, that railway accidents killed 26,000 persons and were the third-leading cause of avoidable deaths between 2004 and 2015. Recent data shows a spike — in the four years to 2018, 15 deaths were reported on railway tracks everyday, an RTI query shows.

In 1960-61, trains collectively travelled just 388.1 million train km as compared to 1170.7 million train km in 2017-2018.

Train kilometer is the unit of measure of distance which corresponds to the movement of a train over one kilometer.

Significantly, despite trains having travelled an additional 74 million train km in 2017-2018 as compared to the last five years, accidents have remained at an all-time low.

More than 60 people were killed in Amritsar on Friday when a speeding train mowed down a festive crowd — the worst trespassing-related accident in the railways’ history.


Punjab Min Navjot Singh Sidhu & Sunil Jakhar speak to media, put the blame on the railways for #AmritsarTrainTragedy.

However, Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani said in a statement that the railways was not intimated about a Dussehra event along the tracks that led to the deaths of at least 61 people in Amritsar . Ashwani Lohani is IRSME officer, current Chairman of the Indian Railway Board and former Chairman & Managing Director of Air India.He said that the accident occurred at a stretch between two stations -- Amritsar and Manawala, and not at a level crossing.