Derailments and collisions per million miles traveled
Norfolk Southern, which used to have one of the lowest accident rates among Class 1 railroads, now has one of the highest.
A line chart showing, per year, the number of train accidents per million miles traveled for the seven Class 1 railroads since 2003. Most railroads have rates of 0.5 to 2 accidents per million miles. Two railroads, Canadian Pacific and Canadian National, had much higher rates, from 3 to 6, in the early 2000s. Norfolk Southern had the lowest rate for much of that time. In recent years, however, Norfolk Southern’s rate has been among the highest.