The train accident on Monday when the speeding Sealdah-bound Uttarbanga Express rammed into the Vanachal Express at Sainthia station in Bhirbhum district killing at least 55 persons was the second major rail mishap in West Bengal in two months.

On May 28 this year, the Howrah-Kurla Jyaneshwari Express was derailed by Naxals in West Midnapore district killing at least 148 people.

Following is the chronology of major train accidents in the country since 2000:

Dec 3, 2000: Forty-six killed and over 130 injured as the Howrah-Amritsar Mail rams into a derailed goods train between Sarai Banjara and Sadhugarh in Punjab.

June 22, 2001: Forty people killed when the Mangalore-Chennai Mail fell into Kadalundi river near Kozhikode in Kerala.

January 5, 2002: 21 killed and 41 injured when Secundarabad-Manmad express train rammed into a stationary goods train at Ghatnandur station in Maharashtra.

March 23, 2002: Seven injured when 13 bogies of Lokmanya Tilak Superfast Express from Patna to Mumbai derailed near Narsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh.

May 12, 2002: Twelve killed when the New Delhi-Patna Shramjeevi Express derails in Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh.

June 4, 2002: Thirty-four killed when the Kasgunj Express rams into a bus at a rail crossing.

September 9, 2002: 100 passengers were killed and 150 hurt when a bogie of Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani Express plunged into Dhave river in Bihar's Aurangabad district.

Sept 10, 2002: One hundred and twenty are killed when the Kolkata-New Delhi Rajdhani Express derails over a bridge in Bihar.

May 15, 2003: Thirty eight people killed and 13 injured when three coaches of Amritsar-bound Frontier Mail caught fire.

June 22, 2003: 53 were killed and 25 injured when Karwar-Mumbai Central Holiday Special train derailed after crossing Vaibhavwadi Station in Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra.

July 2, 2003: A train engine and two adjoining coaches fell off a bridge in Warangal, killing 18 people.

February 27, 2004: 30 people killed when Guwahati-bound Kanchenjunga Express rammed into a truck at an unmanned level-crossing in West Bengal's Dinajpur district.

December 15, 2004: 34 persons, including 11 women, died and about 50 injured when Ahmedabad-bound Jammu Tawi Express collided head-on with a local train about 40 km from Jalandhar in Punjab.

August 18, 2006: Two carriages caught fire on Chennai-Hyderabad Express near Secundrabad railway station.

November 9, 2006: About 40 died and 15 injured in a West Bengal rail accident.

December 1, 2006: A portion of 150-year-old bridge being dismantled collapsed over a passing train in Bihar's Bhagalpur district, killing 35 and injuring 17.

November 14, 2009: The Delhi-bound Mandore Express derailed with some portion of the track piercing its AC compartment, leaving seven passengers dead and over 60 injured in in Bassi town near Jaipur.

October 21, 2009: Twenty-two people were killed and 26 injured when the Goa Express rammed the Mewar Express at Banjana on the Mathura-Vrindavan section of the Northern Railway in Uttar Pradesh.

2 January 2010 – Three accidents involving five trains took place in Uttar Pradesh due to dense fog conditions, killing 15 people.

16 January 2010 – Three people died and around a dozen were injured when two express trains — Kalindi Express and Shram Shakti Express — collided in thick fog in Uttar Pradesh.