What is the deadliest train in the US?

Brightline trains have the highest death rate in the U.S., fatally striking 98 people since Miami-West Palm operations began — about one death for every 32,000 miles its trains travel, according to an ongoing Associated Press analysis using data since 2019.



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While the company would like you to think the mass majority of these deaths are suicides the numbers don't lie: Brightline is the deadliest train operator in America, and has killed 88 people since it opened service to Florida's Gold Coast in June of 2017. That's a death for every 32,000 miles traveled, ABC reports.

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At least 88 deaths have now been connected to Brightline, Florida's privately owned passenger railroad, since it began operations in July 2017, running from West Palm Beach to Miami.

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None of the deaths involving Brightline have been found to be the railroad's fault. Most have been suicides, pedestrians who tried to run across the tracks ahead of a train, or drivers who maneuvered around crossing gates rather than wait.

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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.

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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.

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The 2004 Sri Lanka tsunami train wreck is the largest single rail disaster in world history by death toll, with 1,700 fatalities or more. It occurred when a crowded passenger train (No 50, Matara Express) was destroyed on a coastal railway in Sri Lanka by a tsunami that followed the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

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Brightline trains have the highest death rate in the U.S., fatally striking 98 people since Miami-West Palm operations began — about one death for every 32,000 miles its trains travel, according to an ongoing Associated Press analysis using data since 2019.

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(Based on Preliminary 2022 Federal Railroad Administration Statistics)
  • Texas. 241. ...
  • California. 172. ...
  • Illinois. 148. ...
  • Florida. 117. ...
  • Indiana. 101. ...
  • Georgia. ...
  • Louisiana. ...
  • Alabama.


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10 Most Dangerous Train Routes in the World
  • Aso Minami Route, Japan.
  • Georgetown Loop Railroad, Colorado, USA.
  • White Pass and Yukon Route, Alaska, USA.
  • Tren a las Nubes, Argentina.
  • Kuranda Scenic Railroad, Australia.
  • Devil's Nose Train, Ecuador.
  • The Death Railway, Thailand.
  • Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe Train, South Africa.


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The great distances between major cities in the USA favor flying. Planes travel at speeds more than 500 miles an hour while most trains travel at speeds never exceeding 80 miles an hour. At some point upwards of a 600 mile trip, traveling by train starts adding entire days to a person's travel plans.

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Brightline train service has highest US death rate According to an ongoing Associated Press analysis of federal data that began in 2019, the high-speed train has the highest death rate in the country.

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There are about three train derailments per day. They usually aren't disasters The U.S. saw more than one thousand train derailments last year, but industry leaders say traveling by rail remains one of the safest methods of transportation.

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During the night of 22–23 July 1945, these men went ashore at Karafuto, Japan, and planted an explosive charge that subsequently wrecked a train.

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1650. England – Whickham, County Durham. Two boys die when they are run over by a wagon on a wooden coal train way. While such tramway accidents are not generally listed as rail accidents (note the lack of accidents listed for the next 163 years) this is sometimes cited as the earliest-known railway accident.

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There were eight non-workforce fatalities (passenger or public) in the year April 2022 to March 2023: three occurred in mainline stations and two at the platform-train interface; two passenger fatalities at stations on the London Underground; and one fatality from a collision between a member of the public and a tram.

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Nonetheless, the blemishes on the record have been appearing with concerning regularity in recent years. Until 2020, the 2007 derailment in Grayrigg was the last time a passenger died in a UK train crash – a huge turnaround after a succession of terrible accidents in the days of Railtrack around the millennium.

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