List of rail accidents in the United Kingdom

This lists significant accidents involving railway rolling stock, including crashes, fires and incidents of crew being overcome by locomotive emissions. Other railway-related incidents such as the King's Cross fire of 1987 or the 7 July 2005 London bombings are not included.

Worst accidents
The worst accident was the Quintinshill rail disaster in Scotland in 1915 with 226 dead and 246 injured. Second worst, and the worst in England, was the 1952 Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash, which killed 112 people and injured 340. The death toll from the 1957 Lewisham rail crash was 90; for the 1889 Armagh rail disaster (the worst in Northern Ireland) it was 80; and for the 1879 Tay Bridge disaster it was 75. The worst rail accident in Wales was the 1868 Abergele rail disaster, with 33 dead.

The accident on the London Underground with the highest loss of life was the Moorgate tube crash which occurred on the Northern City Line in 1975 (which was at the time part of the London Underground Network).

1830–1922: Pre-grouping
Before 1830: the 1815 Philadelphia train accident, a boiler explosion of "Brunton's Mechanical Traveller" on a plateway killed 16 people, mainly sightseers.

1995 onwards: Post-privatisation


There were 732 deaths from 146 accidents in 46 years when there was national rail provided by the state between 17 April 1948 and 15 October 1994. There were 92 deaths from 50 accidents in 28 years when there was privatised rail between 31 January 1995 and 24 August 2021.

London Underground
Despite its age and high usage, train related accidents which have involved passenger fatalities are exceptionally rare. The last major fatal collision was the Moorgate tube crash in 1975. Derailments in the period 2003–2004 killed no-one, although the Chancery Lane derailment in 2003 led to a closure of the Central line whilst urgent safety checks were undertaken.

Tram and light rail
Fatal accidents have occurred involving trams; the worst took place in Dover in 1917, when a tram ran away down a hill and overturned, killing 11 people and injuring 60. In 2016, a tram derailed on a sharp bend and overturned in Croydon, killing seven people and injuring 50.

Staff accidents
For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, working on the United Kingdom's railway was very dangerous for many staff. In 1900, for example, for every one passenger killed or injured in a crash, there were seven worker casualties. This amounted to 15,698 staff injuries and 631 fatalities.

The 'Railway Work, Life & Death' project is uncovering details of British and Irish staff accidents before 1939 and making them freely available, via a database of transcriptions of staff accident investigations and other related records. At March 2023, the database documented nearly 50,000 individuals.

The National Railway Museum has an online exhibit, looking at railway safety—with a focus on the staff.