A fractured rail is suspected as the cause of the worst train crash in India since 2010. The Indore-Patna Express train derailed near Kanpur in northern India. At least 200 are injured.
"At least 120 people are said to have have been killed and at least 200 more injured after a train derailed near the city of Kanpur in northern India in the country’s worst train crash since 2010," reports Vidhi Doshi in Mumbai for The Guardian.
Hundreds of people were trapped after 14 carriages of the express train, travelling from Indore to Patna [operated by the government-owned Indian Railways], crumpled into one another as they came off the tracks on Sunday.
Every day, more than 20 million Indians use the country’s heaving, out of date and poorly maintained railway system, the fourth largest in the world. Accidents on Indian trains are common and claim more than 25,000 lives a year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau [PDF].
[Correspondent's note: In "passengers carried in rail transport per year", it is ranked third, behind China and Japan, per Wikipedia.]
A document sent to the Guardian by Anil Saxena, a railways spokesman, said derailments were often caused by “poor maintenance of infrastructure especially at stations and failure to take appropriate precautionary measures against flash floods, landslides, boulder[s] falling, etc."
The Commission of Railway Safety "will look into the possibility of a fracture in the tracks as a possible cause of the accident, which led to the coaches to not only go off the rails but pile up, leading to high casualties," report Ramendra Singh and Avishek G Dastidar for The Indian EXPRESS. "Derailment is the cause of 50 per cent of all accidents in the Indian Railways."
Dastidar also reports in a subsequent article in The Indian EXPRESS that 695 passengers were on the train. The article focuses on travel insurance, indicating that the derailment "will be the first real test of the recently-launched optional travel insurance scheme for train passengers."
In a third article on the derailment, he reports that outdated coaches used on the Indore-Patna Express contributed to the high casualties on the train.
Hat tip to Emma Bowman of NPR.
FULL STORY: Desperate search for survivors after India train crash kills 120

Rethinking Redlining
For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units
Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

LA Falling Behind on Housing Goals
Last year, the city permitted just 30 percent of the number of housing units needed to meet a growing need.

Connecting Communities to Nature Close to Home
Los Angeles County’s Nature in Your Neighborhood program brings free, family-friendly wellness and nature activities to local parks, making it easier for residents to enjoy and connect with the outdoors.

Palmdale’s Beloved Water Park Gets $2 Million Upgrade
To mark its 20th anniversary, DryTown Water Park has undergone major renovations, ensuring that families across the Antelope Valley continue to enjoy safe, affordable, and much-needed water-based recreation in the high desert.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
City of Clovis
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service