January 14 – The Strategic Rail Authority unveils its 10-year strategic plan for the British national railway network, including a £4.5bn investment in new trains, improved station facilities, track repair and signalling work.[3]
The railroad dining car catering services of Mitropa, which was founded in 1916, are handed over to DB Reise & Touristik, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn.
October 11 – The prototype AVE Class 102 train (later used by track authority ADIF as test train Class 330) reaches speeds of 362 km/h (225 mph) during test runs.[10]
Completion of 360 km of dual gauge track on Bangladesh Railway, improving connections between the previously isolated east and west networks and giving 1676 mm gauge access to Dhaka, the capital.[15]
February 20 – Al Ayyat train disaster at Reqa Al-Gharbiya in Egypt: a fire on a train running from Cairo to Luxor kills at least 383 and injures over 65.
May 2 – An eastbound Canadian National train collides with a trailer near Firmdale, Manitoba, Canada; about 20 cars carrying plastic pellets, benzene, glycol and hexane catch fire, forcing the evacuation of nearly 200 local residents.[16]
May 13 – Jaunpur train crash: the Shramjivi Express, travelling from New Delhi to Patna, India, strikes a sabotaged section of rail and derails at Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, killing 12 people.
May 25 – The Tenga rail disaster of May 2002 occurred at Tenga 40 km north-west from Maputo, Mozambique; there were 192 deaths with 167 injured.
May 28 – Two BNSF Railway trains collide near Clarendon, Texas, killing one person and seriously injuring 3 others from jumping from the locomotives. The cause was repeated phone use by one of the engineers.
June 4 – The Kasganj level crossing disaster happened near the town of Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh, India. An express train collided with a bus, killing 49 people.
June 24 – In the Igandu train disaster, a large passenger train in Tanzania with over 1,200 people on board rolls backwards down a hill into a stationary goods train, killing 281 people.
September 10 – At least 130 people are killed in the Rafiganj train disaster in India, where a passenger train derails on a bridge and falls into a river. Naxalitesabotage is suspected.
September 15 - A Norfolk Southern freight train derails in Farragut, Tennessee resulting in a hazardous materials release of fuming Sulfuric acid and evacuation of more than 2,600 nearby residents for nearly three days. Damage was estimated at just over one million USD.[17]
December 21 – The Kurnool train crash happened in Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh, India, when a passenger train derailed, killing 20 people.
