Trespassing on the railway tracks is illegal and extremely dangerous, and we are implementing a range of initiatives to identify hotspots and reduce the number of trespassing incidents. Our priority is always the safety of our customers and staff, so this means that trespassing can cause delays.
What can go wrong?
- We had 1397 trespassers on the railway in 2019, which caused 81,919 delay minutes and 1925 cancellations
- Sometimes we get reports of trespass but we don't see the person leave. We can't run trains at normal speed until the area has been searched and this can cause delays
What we’re doing to help
- We have identified trespassing hotspot areas where we know there are a large number of incidents. We are working closely with Network Rail and the British Transport Police (BTP) at these locations to have a visible presence and deter people from accessing the railway
- We are improving communications when an incident happens to target response teams more effectively
- We are increasing the number of BTP officers on our network. An additional team of 6 will be travelling our network from April 2020
- We are adding additional security patrols along six areas over the Christmas period
- We are trialling drone technology to speed up area searches after reports of trespass
- BTP are working within the community and we are carrying out school and nursery visits to educate young people on the dangers of the railway
- If there is a trespasser on our railway, the BTP and local response teams attend to locate and remove the person. Safety is paramount and to allow them to access our railway we need to stop trains
- Our trains are slowed down or stopped for safety reasons and so we don't hurt anyone