India: Another train collision, causing many deaths. Express train collided with freight train

A passenger and freight train collided in Darjeeling, India’s Bengal state, today, killing at least 13 people and injuring three dozen. This is reported by Reuters with reference to the police. Rescue teams and ambulances carrying doctors have arrived at the scene. The first video of the crash site shows the wrecked carriages, one of which stands almost vertically.

According to local authorities The Kanchanjunga Express, which connects the northeastern states of Assam and Tripura with Bengal, was hit by a freight train. The cause of the accident is still unclear.

India has one of the largest railway networks in the world. It was built more than 160 years ago under British colonial rule. Today, about 11,000 trains run every day, carrying about 13 million passengers in the world’s most populous country.

Aging infrastructure is often cited as the cause of delays and numerous train accidents. Although government statistics show accidents and derailments have fallen in recent years, they are still tragically common.

According to official data, there were nearly 18,000 railway accidents across the country in 2021, killing more than 16,000 people; mainly involving falls from trains and collisions between equipment and people on the tracks.

India’s worst rail disaster occurred in 1981 when a train derailed while crossing a bridge in Bihar state; about 800 people died. In June 2023, three trains collided in Odisha, killing nearly 300 people.