With a good safety record overall, rail travel has become safer in recent years.  However, rail travel in Europe is a common, relatively cheap, and convenient means of transport for many Europeans.

It also has a good safety record overall, having become safer in recent years. However, the tragedy in Greece reminds us how deadly accidents can be when they happen. Here is an overview of the deadliest train accidents in recent years.

In November 2000, a funicular on a cable car caught fire in a mountain tunnel in Kaprun, Austria, killing 155 people. Skiers and snowboarders on the way to the slopes of the Kitzsteinhorn have died.

In June 1998, a high-speed train traveling at 200 km/h (125 mph) collided with a bridge in Eschede, Germany, causing the bridge to collapse. 101 people died in the disaster, and more than 100 were injured. It was the deadliest train accident in Germany after the war.

In July 2013, a commuter train derailed on a bend near the city of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, killing 80 and injuring 145 others. An investigation revealed that the train was travelling at 179 km/h (111 mph) on a section with a speed limit of 80 km/h (50 mph) when it derailed and crashed into a wall. The case eventually went to court in October, with the train driver and former railway safety director charged with misconduct. The verdict is expected within the next months.

In July 2006, a metro train crashed at high speed into an underground tunnel east of Valencia, killing 43 people and injuring many more. It took a court 13 years to convict four New York City subway operators of manslaughter for failing to take the necessary safety measures to prevent the tragedy.

In January 2006, a train outside the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica derailed and fell into a ravine due to a braking system malfunction. 45 people were killed in the collision, including five children, and 184 others were hurt. It was the worst train accident that had ever occurred in Montenegro.

32 people were killed in an explosion that occurred in 2009 when a gas-filled freight train derailed at the Viareggio station, close to the Tuscan city of Lucca. The train's poorly maintained axles were to blame.

In October 1999, a train leaving London's Paddington station ran a red light and collided with an incoming high-speed train, killing 31 people in the country's worst rail accident in the previous 30 years. There were about 400 injuries.

In July 2016, in the late morning, two Italian commuter trains collided head-on between towns in the southern region of Puglia, killing 31 people and injuring others. The investigation revealed a communication error between the stations from which the various trains departed.

On February 15, 2010, two commuter trains collided on the outskirts of Brussels during the morning rush hour when one of them ran a red light. The country's worst train accident killed 19 people and injured 171. The tragedy was compounded by the fact that a similar red light outage had occurred many years earlier and that promises to add safety measures had not been fully fulfilled.