This is a list of rail accidents from 1970 to 1979. For a list of terrorist incidents involving trains, see List of terrorist incidents involving railway systems.
1970 February 1 – Argentina – Benavídez rail disaster: A Tucumán–Buenos Aires express train collided with a standing local train south of Benavídez railroad station north of Buenos Aires. 142 people were killed, 368 injured (though some sources state 236 killed). February 16 – Nigeria – A train crowded with Eid al-Kabir pilgrims derailed at Langalanga about 27 km southeast of Gusau, with several cars falling down an embankment. About 150 were killed; reportedly, 52 of the injured were killed in a truck crash on the way to hospital. March 22 – United States – Branford, Connecticut: A Penn Central freight train derailed on the Shore Line Division (now the Northeast Corridor) in Branford center. 25 of the 86 cars derailed, demolishing Branford Station (a passenger shed at the time), and tore up a of track. The cause of the accident was the breakage of an overheated axle on a car loaded with 83 tons (75 t) of steel, which dragged the derailed cars off with it. May 20 – United Kingdom – Audenshaw Junction rail accident: A Class 506 electric multiple unit derailed at Audenshaw Junction, Cheshire due to a set of points moving under it. Two people were killed and 13 were injured. The cause of the accident was irregular practices by a signalman. June 21 - United States - A Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway train derailed in downtown Crescent City, Illinois. A propane tank car ruptured and explosions caused fires that destroyed the city center. Over 60 firefighters and civilians were injured. July 15 – United Kingdom – A 4BEP electric multiple unit collided with a lorry on a level crossing at , Kent, killing two people. August 9 – Spain – A train from coastal resorts to Bilbao collided with a freight train at Plentzia, killing 33 people and injuring about 200. October 31 – India – A Mangalore Mail crashes into a stationary Cochin Mail at the Perambur station, Madras, killing 16 and injuring 108. December 6 – United States – 1970 Lehigh Valley Railroad derailment: Twenty-five cars of a Lehigh Valley Railroad freight train derailed in Le Roy, New York. A toxic chemical spill led to the scene becoming a United States Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site in 1999. Over 40 years later, the spill was briefly thought to have caused an illness outbreak in the town. December 31 – Iran – Two trains collided at Ardakan due to a signalman's error; a government source indicates 15 people killed, but journalists reported at least 70, with 130 injured.
1971
January 18 – Switzerland – Two commuter trains collided between Feldmeilen and Herrliberg, killing six people and injuring 17. February 9 – West Germany – Aitrang: The TEE 56 Bavaria, a SBB RAm TEE DMU, traveling from Munich to Zürich, derailed while passing a curve shortly after Aitrang station. The maximum speed in the curve was 80 km/h, however the train passed the curve at 130 km/h due to frozen water in the air brake. Shortly after the TEE derailed, a railbus hit the wreckage from the opposite direction. 28 people died, 42 were injured. February 14 – Yugoslavia – In a tunnel near Vranduk (now in Bosnia and Herzegovina), a fire broke out in the diesel-electric locomotive of a passenger train, which then spread to the other cars, killing at least 34. February 26 – United Kingdom – A passenger train made of five 2HAP electric multiple units overran the buffers at , Kent and demolished the station building, killing one person and injuring ten. March 11 – Chile – Gualliguaica rail accident: A passenger train ran away on a downslope from Vicuña to Cresta de Gualliguaica and plunged into a ravine; killing 12. May 4 – United Kingdom – On the Northern Line of the London Underground, a train entered the reversing siding at Tooting Broadway after offloading passengers and crashed into the end of the tunnel at . The driver, who was killed, was apparently reading a book. May 27 – West Germany – Dahlerau train disaster: At Radevormwald, a special railbus service carrying schoolchildren and a freight train collided on the Wuppertal–Radevormwald single-track line near Dahlerau station. The local dispatcher claimed to have signalled a red light to the freight train, while the freight train engineer claimed to have seen a green one. Ultimately, the case was not resolved as the dispatcher was killed in a car accident before legal hearings started. 41 people died, 25 were injured in the worst rail accident in West Germany during Deutsche Bundesbahn era. The crash led to the phasing out of the Nachtbefehlsstab ("Nighttime Command Staff"), and presses DB to introduce radio communications on branch lines. June 10 – United States – 1971 Salem, Illinois, derailment: Amtrak train number 1, the northbound City of New Orleans derailed at due to a false flange on a flat wheel caused by a seized axle bearing. Eleven people died and over were 150 injured in Amtrak's first major incident. July 2 – United Kingdom – At Tattenhall Junction, the track shifted under a passing 10-car special school excursion train from Rhyl to Smethwick due to thermal stress and derailed the last three cars, killing two children and injuring 26 people. July 21 – West Germany – Rheinweiler: D 370 from Basel to Copenhagen passed a 75 km/h curve at about 140 km/h and derailed, destroying a detached house, killing 23 people and injuring 121. The suspected reason for the accident was a technical failure in the Class 103 engine's automatic cruise control mechanism, leading to the engine gaining too much speed. The cruise control was consequently disabled and restricted speed zones were equipped with PZB. August 4 – Yugoslavia – Interurban train Belgare-Požarevac collided with a freight train between the Kasapovac and Lipe stations near Vrčin. 39 people were killed and 73 injured. August 28 – Switzerland – A train derailed in the Simplon Tunnel, killing five people. October 6 – United Kingdom – A 24-car freight train ran away on the downgrade from Beattock Summit toward Carlisle due to stopcocks in the air-brake line being closed. It collided with the train ahead, killing one crew member on that train. October 19 – United States – 20 cars of Missouri Pacific Railroad train No. 94 derailed in Houston; two tank cars loaded with vinyl chloride monomer were punctured, allowing the gas to escape and ignite; 45 minutes after the derailment a third tank car exploded and a fourth was "rocketed" some away; a fireman was killed and 50 were injured. October 26 – Japan – On the Kinki Nippon Railway, between Osaka and Nagoya, a head-on collision killed 23 people.
1972 January 8 – United Kingdom – An engineers train overran signals and rear-ended an electric multiple unit at , West Sussex. The train crew had failed to perform a brake check before departing from and failed to discover that the isolation cocks between the two locomotives had not been opened. Fifteen people are injured. January 16 – Greece – Orfana rail disaster – A breakdown in communication between the stationmasters at Doxaras and Orfana caused an express train and a military relief train to collide in bad weather on the single track line. The southbound diesel hauled Acropolis Express and northbound Number 121 Athens-Thessaloniki, (known as posta) were allowed to proceed without first allowing a passing loop. 21 people died, and more than 40 were injured in one of the deadliest rail accidents in Greece. Nikolaos Gekas The stationmaster at Orfana was later sentenced to 5 years for his part in the disaster. March 24 – United States – Gilchrest Road, New York crossing accident: a school bus was struck by a freight train at a level crossing in Rockland County, New York, near the New York City suburbs of Congers and Valley Cottage, killing five students. The bus driver was convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to probation; the accident also led the U.S. to require school buses to stop at all grade crossings they encounter. March 31 – South Africa – A derailment on the approach to a bridge at Potgietersrus (now Mokopane), possibly due to sabotage, killed 38 people and injures 174. April 26 – India – A derailment north of Bangalore killed 21 and injured 37. May 8 - United Kingdom - Chester General rail crash: A freight train collided with empty coaching stock stopped at , as a result of a brake failure. The resulting fire caused significant damage to the station. June 3 – Poland – Ślesin, (near Bydgoszcz): A train Kolobrzeg–Warsaw derailed on fatigue rail , killing 12 people and injuring 26. June 4 – Bangladesh – A crowded passenger train from Khulna crashed into a stationary freight train at Jessore after the stationmaster threw the wrong switch, killing 76 people and injuring about 500. June 6 - Indonesia - In West Java, a train carrying pine wood rolled over near Cukanghaur train station, killing a crew member of the train and the station master, and injuring seven people. June 11 – United Kingdom – Eltham Well Hall rail crash: An excursion train took a bend at excessive speed and derailed at Eltham, London. The driver and five passengers were killed, and 126 people injured. The subsequent investigation established that the driver had been drinking. June 17 – France – Vierzy tunnel disaster: After 110 years in service, the roof of a tunnel at Vierzy collapsed without warning. Passenger trains in both directions between Paris and Laon, both moving about , crashed into the rubble and each other. 108 were killed and 240 injured. July 21 – Spain – A Madrid-to-Cádiz train collided near Jerez with a local train that failed to obey signals, killing 76 and injuring 103. August 8 – Pakistan – At Liaqatpur on the line between Lahore and Karachi, an express was misrouted onto a side track where a freight train was standing; there were between 38 and 65 deaths. September 29 – South Africa – All but the first-class cars of a 9-car passenger train from Cape Town to Bitterfontein derailed near Malmesbury due to excess speed; between 48 and about 100 people were killed. October 4 – Mexico – . At Saltillo, a train carrying people from a festival at Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí, entered a downhill curve at about or twice the speed limit and derailed nine cars, killing 208 people and injuring 700. The engineer was found to have been drinking and was nearly lynched. October 12 – United Kingdom – A freight train rear-ended an electric multiple unit at , London due to an error by the freight driver, injuring twelve people. October 30 – United States – Chicago commuter rail crash, Two Illinois Central Railroad commuter trains collided after one train, having overshot a station stop, backs into the station, killing 45 people and injuring over 300. October 30 – East Germany – Schweinsburg-Culten: The driver of Ext 346 (Leipzig–Karlovy Vary) failed to notice a stop signal on a single-track stretch of line because of dense fog and collided with D 273 heading toward Berlin, killing 22 people and injuring 70. October 31 – Turkey – A passenger train and a train carrying oil collided at Eskişehir, starting a fire and causing several cars to go down a cliff; at least 30 were killed, and about 50 injured. November 6 – Japan – A fire broke out in the dining car of the Japanese National Railways' Kitaguni night train from Osaka to Aomori, at Hokoriku Tunnel (between Tsuruga and Imajō on the Hokuriku Main Line). One crew member and 29 passengers were killed by carbon monoxide and 714 people were injured. November 22 – Netherlands – Railway accident near Halfweg (1972) – the locomotive of a work train derailed in North Holland. December 16 – United Kingdom – two electric multiple unit passenger trains collided at Copyhold Junction, West Sussex after a driver misread signals, injuring 25 people.
1973