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M. Robinson, G. Vasic, P. Scott, F. Franklin, B. Lafaix, B. Gilmartin, G. Kozyr, A. Schöbel, A. Zarembski, B. Ripke:
"Summary report and database of derailments incidents";
Report for European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme; Report No. D1.1, 2012; 74 pages.

D-Rail - WP 1 has gathered information on numbers of derailments and their causes from countries in Europe and around the world, and associated costs where available. The objective is to identify the major causes of derailment as a starting point for the detailed analysis of derailment causes in WP3.
Previous derailment studies are also looked at. Different countries have different categorisation of causes, and generally different thresholds for reporting, which makes direct comparison difficult. Where human factors are considered, as in UIC and RSSB, these have a significant impact.
This review of project partner countries´ mainline freight train derailments focuses on the six-year period 2005-2010. The statistics collected here for this period show that the number of derailments occurring each year is in general declining. Derailment data was collected from safety databases in the USA, Russia, and several European countries, as well as UIC and ERADIS, and brought together in a single database. Derailment causes have been categorised using a variant of the system used in the recent study for ERA by DNV. Causes have been ranked according to the proportion of derailments occurring within each category, and this has provided the following ranking of derailment causes for Europe:
1. Axle ruptures
2. Excessive track width
3. Wheel failure
4. Skew loading
5. Excessive track twist
6. Track height/cant failure
7. Rail failures
8. Spring & suspension failure
Breakdown of derailments into causes, and rankings of these causes, are presented both for European countries (in particular Austria, France and Great Britain, with the DNV / ERA results for comparison) and as a comparison between Russia, the USA and DNV / ERA (representing Europe). Alternative approaches to comparing and ranking causes are also presented, i.e., normalising the number of derailments by the amount of cargo transported, and using the cost of derailments for each category as a share of the total cost.
It was found that infrastructure and rolling stock are responsible for most derailments on open line and in stations, while operations are the dominant cause in shunting yards. Countries differ in their infrastructure, rolling stock and operation parameters which can create wide variation in the key derailment causes.
This review includes information about monitoring systems.
Although regulations covering reporting of accidents are now in place in the European Union, there is still significant variation in the quality of reporting across the Member States. Detailed information on derailments, their causes and costs, is often available only from private databases in each country. Costs, in particular, are very difficult to estimate since different financial procedures are implemented in different countries, and the impact of derailments can often be over several years.
Derailment impact will be studied further and presented in Deliverable D1.2.

Project Head Norbert Ostermann:
Entwicklung des zukünftigen Schienengüterverkehrs zur Reduktion des Auftretens und der Auswirkungen von Entgleisungen