Data from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) shows that 2025 was the safest year on record for the rail industry, with improvements across almost every safety metric.
The FRA safety data shows that rail remains the safest way to move freight over land, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) said. The report shows that truck incident rates are less than seven incidents per every 100 million gross ton miles, while rail data shows less than 0.5 incidents per every 100 million gross ton miles.
“We can’t run a successful freight system if it’s not a safe system,” Union Pacific Railroad Assistant Vice-President Clint Schelbitski said at the TxDOT Freight Advisory Committee meeting in Austin. “We can’t run a successful railroad if it’s not a safe railroad. 2025 was the safest rail industry in the history of the country. Personal injury rates are the lowest on record and Union Pacific is down 24% year over year. Our derailment rate as an industry is down over 40% since 2005.”
According to FRA data, the rail industry saw its overall train accident rate fall by 14 percent year-over-year, while derailments fell by 13.6 percent. Human factor-related incidents dropped nearly 20 percent while equipment-caused accidents fell 12 percent. And Class I employee casualty rates dropped to a record low, having fallen 54 percent since 2005.
Both Union Pacific and BNSF Railway reported their safest years in history. The safety results are rooted in a focused mindset centered around a “Go Home Safe Culture,” technology-enabled risk reduction, field-based learning and coaching, and continuous improvement through safety systems.
According to Union Pacific, the railroad operated 1.5 million trains over the last three years, 99.99 percent of which were derailment free.