Rail continues to be one of the safest ways to travel, but precursors to train accidents, such as SPADs and train speeding incidents, are still happening.
20 potentially high-risk train accidents were recorded in 2024/25. This is the most since 2019/20. 13 involved passenger trains. Including the accident at Talerddig, there were two collisions, two derailments, five collisions with road vehicles at level crossings, and four events where trains struck buffer stops. There were a further seven high-risk incidents not involving passenger trains.
The number of SPADs by all train types has also been rising over the last 4 years (see Figure 2). There were 306 SPADs in 2024/25, a 6% increase on the previous year. While the SPAD risk metric is at 52% of its 2006 baseline, this is a relatively volatile measure that is significantly influenced by a small number of SPADs that reach the conflict point.
Empty coaching stock (ECS) SPADs remain more frequent on a normalised basis than any other train type. ECS formations see over 4.5 times red signals per mile compared to passenger trains.
Overspeed continues to be a concern in the industry and the number of reported overspeed incidents has increased over the last 5 years.
