As of 2026-10-12, 2004 Sri Lanka tsunami-rail disaster tops the list with 1,700 deaths.
- #1 2004 Sri Lanka tsunami-rail disaster — 1,700 deaths
train wreck
On 26 December 2004, a crowded passenger train was destroyed on a coastal railway in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka, by the tsunami that followed the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. It is considered the largest rail disaster in history, with an estimated 900 to 1,700 deaths. Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #2 Hamont train accident — 1,007 deaths
train wreck
source Wikidata - #3 1917 Ciurea rail disaster — 1,000 deaths
1917 train wreck
The Ciurea rail disaster, known in Romania as the Ciurea catastrophe, occurred on 13 January 1917, during World War I, when a passenger train derailed and collided with a stationary train on another track. It occurred at Ciurea Station, in Iași County, a train station with a passing loop, located on the railway line from Iași to Bârlad. Two commissions of inquiry were held, one military and one technical; the report of the technical commission of the CFR, dated 24 January 1917, attributed... Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #4 Bihar train derailment — 800 deaths
Major Indian train tragedy
In the Indian state of Bihar, on June 6, 1981, a passenger train carrying more than 800 passengers between Mansi and Saharsa, derailed while crossing a bridge and plunged into the river Bagmati. Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #5 Ufa train disaster — 645 deaths
train wreck
The Ufa train disaster was a railway accident that occurred in the Iglinsky District of the Bashkir ASSR, Soviet Union on 4 June 1989, killing 575 people and injuring 800 more. It is the second-deadliest rail disaster in Soviet/Russian history after the 1944 Vereshchyovka train disaster, and the deadliest to occur during peacetime. Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #6 Vereshchyovka train disaster — 600 deaths
railway catastrophy in USSR in 1944
The Vereshchyovka train disaster was a railway accident that occurred near Vereshchyovka in Oryol Oblast, Soviet Union on 24 January 1944. Sources estimate that over 600 people died in the wreck, making it the deadliest train disaster in Soviet and Russian history. Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #7 Guadalajara train disaster — 600 deaths
Mexican railroad accident
The Guadalajara train disaster occurred in the Mexican state of Jalisco on January 22, 1915, and killed over 600 people. Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #8 Balvano train disaster — 517 deaths
train wreck
The Balvano train disaster occurred on the night between 2–3 March 1944 in Balvano, Basilicata, when 517 people in a steam-hauled, coal-burning freight train died of carbon monoxide poisoning during a protracted stall in a tunnel. It was the deadliest railway accident in Italian history and one of the worst railway disasters ever. Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #9 Torre del Bierzo rail disaster — 500 deaths
train wreck
The Torre del Bierzo rail disaster occurred on 3 January 1944 near the village of Torre del Bierzo in the El Bierzo region of Spain's León province when three trains collided and caught fire inside a tunnel. Although the official death toll was 78, and at the time it was estimated to be 200–250, the most recent study has estimated it at no more than 100. Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #10 Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment — 435 deaths
train wreck
The Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment of December 12, 1917, was a railway accident involving a troop train carrying at least 1,000 French soldiers on their way home for leave from the Italian front in World War I. A derailment as the train descended the Maurienne valley on the Culoz–Modane railway caused a catastrophic crash and subsequent fire in which more than 435 died ; a second record reports that 675 died. It is France's deadliest rail accident to date, and is the third largest rail... Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata