Trespass on the railway… and the challenging consequences

EARLIER this summer, I was heading to London when my train rolled to a halt between Grantham and Stoke Tunnel. Network Rail had stopped all trains after reports of a trespasser. After a while, we saw him, crunching his way north along the ballast of the Down Main as we sat on the Up. By this time, there was a queue of trains in both directions.

But with the trespasser now behind us, we and the trains ahead of us could move. As we eventually did, although picking up an hour’s delay.

What caused this man to be on the track in a fairly remote part of the countryside, I don’t know and I can’t guess.

However, in trespassing, he’s not alone.

The Rail Safety and Standards Board’s (RSSB’s) safety team recorded 15,000 incidents in 2023-24, which it says is the highest in the past five years. On average, there are around 1,200 incidents in every four-week recording period.

The totals vary from 1,500 per period in late spring and early summer to under 750 in the depths of winter.

In the same year, RSSB reports ten fatalities related to trespass, of which five were electrocutions on third-rail tracks and five were from being hit by a train.

Every period, Network Rail publishes a list of the top ten incidents that have delayed trains.

The last six reports cover January to June. Trespass tops the table in three of those reports, with more than 900 trains cancelled.

Helen Hamlin leads Network Rail’s efforts to run a punctual railway, as the company’s network operations director.

Trespass and its effects sit high on her priorities.

She recounts an incident at New Malden on August 19 which will surely appear in NR’s top ten when that period’s report becomes public.

A theft suspect running from the Metropolitan Police jumped onto railway tracks at New Malden, on the South Western Main Line around ten miles from Waterloo.

This was mid-afternoon, and Hamlin recounts that Waterloo became gridlocked with passengers in a situation that worsened as the evening came.

Some passengers had panic attacks in the crowds, and NR found office space for a baby that was so newly born that it was twice as old when it left the station as when it arrived.

Then the crowds coming from a Taylor Swift concert arrived.

The lessons from such an incident include realising that a relatively small incident can quickly cause a massive ricochet, and that the initial incident can appear without warning but demand an immediate response.

Aside from having grab bags of the kit needed to manage large crowds, Hamlin also noted the importance of train operators knowing exactly where their crews are.

Not that South Western Railway needs telling, for Period 2’s most disruptive incident also occurred on its patch - at Raynes Park on May 15.

Hamlin recounts that a person in mental distress had climbed a gantry. The result was 418 cancelled trains and almost 13,000 delay minutes (coincidentally almost the same as nearby New Malden’s incident would record).

And on the day Hamlin and I spoke, someone walked onto the railway viaduct at Durham. Hamlin used this incident as an example of the challenges that arise.

She said that operational staff and NR’s mobile operations manager on the scene were saying that it was OK to have the overhead electrification energised and to keep trains moving.

However, the police were not so happy until a decision came from higher in their ranks. This shows the need for judgement in situations where answers may not be clear-cut. Once my trespasser was visible on the northbound line from the back cab of my train, it was clear that neither he nor we were a risk to each other, and so we could safely move on.

The same could not be said of trains heading north. Nor was this person at risk of electrocution, so power could remain switched on so that trains would not become stranded. This would clearly not be the case at New Malden or Raynes Park - and that’s doubtless why third[1]rail network incidents feature so highly in NR’s lists.

Stranded trains may sometimes result from trespass, but they’re also a cause. RSSB reports 53 cases of passengers evacuating themselves from trains in 2023-24, which it says is nearly triple the number in 2018-19. The trend of self-evacuation is rising, although for context they Trespass on the railway… and the challenging account for under 1% of trespass events.

Hamlin is keen to see better information from the front line. Drivers play an important role in reporting what’s going on to signallers.

Having an accurate location for a trespasser is vital, as well as a description of them and a view on whether they look to be in distress. From this, NR can make a better plan.

It can, for example, minimise traction power isolations to keep as many trains as possible moving.

The company also continues to make it harder to trespass, with better fencing along the lineside and obstacles at the ends of platforms.

‘Witches’ hats’ now appear as an obstacle of low-level cones that are difficult to cross.

They’re the modern version of those grids of triangular slats sometimes seen on platform ramps or flanking level crossings.

Such obstacles can be placed on the track itself, fixed to sleepers to further deter potential trespassers. NR is investigating linking closed circuit television (CCTV) with artificial intelligence (AI) to detect behavioural patterns in potential trespassers. London Bridge marks NR’s first foray into this area.

Then there’s education, particularly aimed at young people and their parents.

This aims to protect the audience as much as to minimise train delays and follows incidents in which people have been electrocuted after clambering on wagons in freight yards.

Some trespass may appear harmless.

Teenagers dangling their legs over platform edges is something that seems harmless until it isn’t. Likewise, jumping down to pick up a dropped mobile phone. Other trespass is inadvertent. If you fall asleep on your last train home and wake up in the carriage sidings, you’re a trespasser. Some is deliberate.

Leaving a station by an unofficial route in order to avoid buying a ticket fare is trespass as well as fare evasion.

Crossing the tracks as a shortcut is trespass.

Here the railway could make more of its powers and levy those £1,000 fines seen on warning notices.

RSSB said in research a couple of years ago that rail companies rarely levy fines for trespass but added that studies have suggested fines might be more effective than education.

Of course, to fine someone, NR would need to catch and prosecute them.

That same RSSB research also noted that fines for trespass might need to be enforced by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Hamlin is clear that we should see stopping the railway outside Euston as just as unacceptable as blocking the M25.

That’s whether the trespasser is running from the police or setting out to cause disruption. In this context, fines or other penalties may prove effective.