Pakistan Railways recorded 448 accidents across its network between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025, including 164 incidents classified as major, according to a written reply by the Ministry of Railways in the National Assembly. The same reply records 169 deaths over the five-year period. Its most striking detail is the number of passenger-train derailments: 132 major derailments, with the annual count rising from 13 in 2021 to 47 in 2025.
The figures matter to passengers because they show more than an isolated crash or a single day’s disruption. They also need to be read carefully: the ministry’s answer separates all recorded accidents from those classified as major, and it does not provide a passenger-kilometre measure that would allow a direct comparison of individual journey risk.
What the official figures show
| Year | Major accidents | Passenger-train derailments |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 22 | 13 |
| 2022 | 18 | 13 |
| 2023 | 35 | 23 |
| 2024 | 40 | 36 |
| 2025 | 49 | 47 |
| Total | 164 | 132 |
The total of 448 covers all accidents reported across the railway network during the five years. Of those, 164 were classified as major in the ministry’s table. The annual number of major accidents increased from 22 in 2021 to 49 in 2025. Passenger-train derailments made up the largest category in the major-accident breakdown.
Derailments dominate the major-accident table
The ministry’s five-year table lists 132 passenger-train derailments. It separately records 16 collisions at manned level crossings, 10 fires in trains, two collisions between passenger and goods trains, three goods-train collisions and one collision between passenger trains.
This breakdown helps explain why a single headline number is not enough. A derailment, a level-crossing collision and a train fire involve different operating conditions and require different preventive measures. A safety strategy that focuses only on one type of incident would miss other risks recorded in the same official table.
Passenger-train derailments increased from 13 in 2021 to 47 in 2025. That is a substantial change in the recorded count, but the table does not explain the cause of each derailment. It would be inaccurate to attribute the increase to track condition, rolling stock, signalling, human error or any single factor without the corresponding investigation findings.
Who lost their lives?
The ministry reported 169 deaths in train accidents over the five years. Its breakdown was:
- Passengers: 134 deaths
- Road users: 28 deaths
- Railway employees: 7 deaths
Passengers accounted for the largest share of the recorded fatalities. The deaths of road users also show that railway safety extends beyond people inside trains. Level crossings and other points where road traffic meets the railway network are part of the public-safety picture.
How should the ministry’s accident rate be interpreted?
In its reply, the ministry said Pakistan Railways operates about 40,000 trains per year and averages 33 major accidents annually, describing this as 0.082 per cent. This is the ministry’s calculation based on train operations. It is not a passenger-level probability and does not show the risk per passenger, per kilometre travelled or per individual route.
A proper comparison of safety performance would ideally publish consistent figures for train-kilometres, passenger-kilometres, freight movements, accident severity, injuries, route and cause. Without those denominators and definitions, a raw count can show the direction of reported incidents but cannot tell a passenger the precise probability of being involved in an accident.
What safety measures did the government identify?
The ministry’s reply listed a broader set of measures than seminars alone. It said Pakistan Railways was:
- holding safety seminars and workshops to improve staff capacity;
- conducting training and refresher courses at the Pakistan Railway Academy;
- carrying out regular inspections under prescribed standards and schedules;
- circulating monthly safety bulletins and rules of the month to operating divisions;
- running public-awareness campaigns about railway crossings;
- registering FIRs against trespassers and road users where negligence is identified;
- installing Urdu warning signs at manned and unmanned crossings;
- upgrading most vulnerable unmanned level crossings; and
- taking disciplinary action against officials found responsible.
In a supplementary response, the parliamentary secretary also told the House that the ML-1 project’s groundbreaking had taken place and described it as a three-year project. That statement is a government assurance recorded in the parliamentary debate; the reply did not provide a route-by-route milestone table or show how many of the listed accident locations would be addressed by the project.
The public answer therefore identifies several activities, but it does not provide the counts needed to assess their reach: how many crossings were upgraded, how many inspections were completed, which recommendations were closed, or how many investigations led to a specific engineering or operating change. Publishing those details would help Parliament and passengers judge whether the measures are reducing risk rather than simply being undertaken.
What a more useful public safety dashboard would include
Pakistan Railways could make its safety reporting more useful by publishing a regular dashboard with a consistent definition of major and minor accidents. It should include:
- Accidents by type, route, date and severity.
- Passenger and employee fatalities and injuries, separately identified.
- Train-kilometres and passenger-kilometres, so rates can be compared fairly.
- Investigation status, findings and the implementation of recommendations.
- Track, signalling, rolling-stock and level-crossing inspections, including overdue corrective work.
- Progress on safety measures, with a clear responsible department and completion date.
Publishing this information would make it easier to distinguish an accident count from an actual change in safety performance. It would also help identify whether a problem is concentrated on a route, a type of equipment or a particular operating practice.
What passengers can do
Passengers cannot inspect a railway network, but they can follow basic safety practices. Board only after the train has stopped, keep away from platform edges, do not cross tracks on foot, use designated pedestrian crossings and obey railway staff instructions. At level crossings, never drive around a closed barrier or attempt to beat an approaching train.
These precautions do not replace the railway operator’s responsibility to maintain safe infrastructure and equipment. They simply reduce avoidable risks at the points where passenger behaviour and railway operations meet.
The central question is whether the trend is being reversed
The National Assembly figures show that major accidents and passenger-train derailments were higher in 2025 than in 2021. They do not explain why the counts rose or establish whether the same pattern continued in 2026. The next useful public update should therefore include the latest accident totals, investigation outcomes and measurable progress on corrective work—not only a list of safety seminars or general assurances.
Official parliamentary record: National Assembly proceedings and the Ministry of Railways’ written reply on major accidents.