The crash is the latest in a long line of British rail disasters

7 July 2003: A First Great Western train was involved in a collision with a minibus on a level crossing between Pershore and Evesham, Worcestershire. Three people in the minibus, all immigrant agricultural workers, died.

10 May 2002: Seven people were killed and over 70 injured when a WAGN service from London to King's Lynn crashed at Potters Bar, in Hertfordshire. Three of the four carriages derailed and one ploughed along the platform.

28 February 2001: Ten people were killed when a GNER train from York to London King's Cross crashed at Great Heck, north Yorkshire. A Land Rover, driven by Gary Hart, had slid down an embankment from the M62 into the path of the express train, which was derailed and then collided with a freight train. Hart was later jailed for five years for causing death by dangerous driving.

17 October 2000: Four people were killed and a further 35 hurt when a GNER London to Leeds train, travelling at over 100mph, derailed at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. A broken rail was found to be the "substantial" cause of the accident.

5 October 1999: Thirty-one people were killed when two trains collided at Ladbroke Grove, just outside Paddington station, in London, after one of them had gone through a red signal.

19 September 1997: A speeding express from Swansea to Paddington crashed into an empty freight train at Southall, killing seven people.

8 August 1996: One person was killed and 69 people were injured when a train collided with a stationary passenger train at Watford South Junction in Hertfordshire.

31 January 1995: A guard was killed and 30 other people injured in an accident at Aisgill on the Settle to Carlisle line.

15 October 1994: Five people were killed and 13 injured in a head-on crash after a train driver ran a red signal near Cowden, Kent.

Seven people died in the Potters Bar crash in 2002

21 July 1991: Four people died and 22 were hurt as two trains collided head on at Newton station, near Glasgow.

8 January 1991: Two passengers died and more than 240 were injured when a train ran into buffers at London's Cannon Street station.

August 1990: A train driver was killed and 35 injured at Stafford station in a two-train crash.

6 March 1989: Two suburban electric trains in Glasgow collided head-on on a single track and two people died.

4 March 1989: Five people died and more than 90 were injured when two trains collided outside Purley station, in south London.

12 December 1988: In the worst train accident of recent years, 35 people died at Clapham Junction in a rush-hour collision involving three trains.

November 1988: A train driver was killed and 18 passengers hurt when a commuter train ploughed into a bridge after leaving the tracks at St. Helens, Merseyside.

October 1987: Four people died when a train fell into the swollen River Towy after a rail bridge collapsed.

September 1986: Sixty people were hurt and one killed in a collision between two express trains at Colwich, Staffordshire.

26 July 1986: Nine people were killed and 11 injured when a passenger train hit a van on a level-crossing at Lockington, Yorkshire.

December 1984: Two people died and 77 were hurt when a passenger train hit a tanker train at Salford, Greater Manchester.

October 1984: Three people were killed and 60 injured at Wembley, London, when a passenger train collided with a freight train.

Four people died in the 2000 Hatfield derailment

July 1984: Thirteen people were killed and 44 hurt in a derailment in Falkirk.

October 1979: Five people died and 52 were hurt when two passenger trains collided at Invergowrie.

April 1979: A collision between two trains near Paisley left seven people dead and 67 hurt.

June 1975: Two trains, including the Euston to Glasgow sleeper service, collided at Nuneaton station, Warwickshire, killing six people and injuring 67.

December 1973: A train derailed in Ealing, west London, killing 10 people and injuring 94.

August 1973: Five were killed and 50 hurt when an electric train hit a diesel train near Glasgow Central Station.

May 1969: Six people died and 121 were injured when a London-Aberdeen express derailed at Morpeth, in Northumberland.

January 1968: A packed passenger train crashed into a low-loader being driven across a level crossing, at Hixon, near Stafford, killing 11 people and seriously injuring 27.

November 1967: A derailment at Hither Green in south London killed 49 people and injured 78.

December 1957: A train ran through a red signal in the fog and collided with another train at Lewisham, south London, killing 90 people and injuring 173.

12 October 1952: When two express trains collided at Harrow and Wealdstone, in north west London, and a third train ran into the wreckage, 112 people were killed and 340 hurt.