If you exclude the side on ones, there are three possible modes of collision between two trains.
F1-F2
F1-R2
F2-R1
Assuming all three are equally likely then there is a 2/3 chance that if there is a collision, it will be the front of your train that is hit. If we regard the head on crash as less likely as most routes are not single line working, then the chance moves nearer to 1/2 but always remain higher than that as long as the possibility of a head on exists.
Add to that the possibility of a collision with something else on the track, and the chance of a frontal impact increases rather than reduces.
So, if you can't sit in the middle, prefer the back to the front.
(Bound to be something wrong with that reasoning, I always cock up probability questions).
Being on a train may well be safer than staying at home, so it's largely immatteral, as my grandfather used to say.
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