Mexico City.- From January to April of this year, accidents in the Mexican Railway System (SFM) increased 55 percent annually, with a total of 576 events, according to data from the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency (ARTF).
Accidents involving this mode of transport are classified into four categories: level crossings, railway equipment, infrastructure and operation; death, injury and others, and hazardous materials or waste.
Those that grew the most in the first four months of the year were those related to railway equipment, infrastructure and operation, which reported an annual increase of 191%, with 213 events, according to the April 2024 safety report.
This was followed by fatal, injury and other accidents, which had an annual increase of 49 percent in the period, with 88 cases. At level crossings, the increase was 15.6 percent.
In April alone, the entities where the most railway accidents were recorded were Yucatan (16 reports), Nuevo Leon (14), Jalisco (14), Guanajuato (13) and the State of Mexico (13).
According to ARTF, drivers’ violation of traffic laws regulating road crossings is the main cause of railway accidents at level crossings.
While in general terms, the increase in railway accidents is related to insecurity and people’s impatience, said Carlos Barreda, a railway specialist and director of Ferroviaria.MX.
It is therefore essential to consider installing cameras and electronic boards to display train times and to impose fines.
Barreda said that the concessionaires have invested in preventive campaigns, with the aim of avoiding accidents on the railway tracks, in addition to improving the structural elements of the crossings, in recent years (signaling and crossing panels on the tracks).
He said that in the first four months of the year, derailments decreased by 47 percent, which shows the efforts of concessionaires to streamline their operations.
“Likewise, the absence of blockades that at one time managed to stop rail traffic for several weeks on the routes of Michoacán, Veracruz, Chihuahua and Sonora,” said the expert.
On the contrary, he recalled, this Administration eliminated the National Railroad Crossing Safety Fund Trust, which was part of the federal resources that the Government had for signaling.
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