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U.S. railroads reduced train accidents and incidents, but recorded more grade crossing fatalities compared with 2003, according to preliminary Federal Railroad Administration data.

The train incident rate per million train miles dropped from 7.81 to 6.93 and accident rate per million train miles declined from 4.02 to 3.98. The employee on-duty casualty rate per 200,000 manhours fell from 2.73 to 2.44.

Meanwhile, trespasser fatalities decreased from 502 to 480. The trespasser incident rate per million train miles of 1.12 dropped 7 percent compared with 2003’s 1.21 rate.

Although the rate of crossing incidents per million train miles declined from 3.95 to 3.85, crossing fatalities rose from 331 to 369.