Mapping high-speed railway accidents 2000–2024: characteristics, patterns, and preventive measures

With the scale of high-speed railways growing globally, high-speed railway accidents during operation occur more and more frequently. However, a critical analysis of high-speed railway accidents happening in the past two decades remains lacking in extant literature. The aims of this study are to explore the characteristics and patterns of high-speed railway accidents worldwide and to propose feasible preventive measures accordingly. To achieve these goals, 150 high-speed railway accidents occurring globally between 2000 and 2024 were gathered first. Then, content analysis was performed to systematically examine distribution characteristics across four aspects of the information of the 150 accidents: dates and locations, casualties, causes and types. Subsequently, contingency table test was performed to assess the correlations between: (1) accident type and casualty; (2) accident type and cause; and (3) accident country and cause. Lastly, preventive measures that could potentially help to improve the safe operation of high-speed railway systems were proposed. Results showed that equipment factors (41.61%) are exposed to be the main causes, followed by human factors (33.58%) and environmental factors (24.82%). Furthermore, derailment and collision accidents are the most common accident types having the most serious consequence. Results also revealed significant correlations between accident type and both casualty and cause. As limited research has been conducted to explore the characteristics and patterns of global high-speed railway accidents, this study is a contributory research to the current body of knowledge. Additionally, the results of this study can provide practitioners with a deeper understanding of global high-speed railway accidents and thereby helping them develop more feasible measures to ensure the safe operation of high-speed railway systems.