Behavioural and organisational interventions to prevent trespass and graffiti vandalism on railway property

Abstract

Trespassing behaviour is a problem for railway operations because it leads to train-pedestrian collisions and important delays. Trespassing incidents result from the violation of the rail track access rules by pedestrians. In many cases, this behaviour is driven by vandalism intentions. Various measures have been developed and implemented to reduce trespass and vandalism on railway premises, but to date there is no publication to show which of these measures are more effective. This paper aims to review the good practices and recommendations on the prevention of railway trespass and vandalism and to provide a summary of the most promising preventive measures that involve human factors namely collaborative measures, enforcement, staff training, public education and environmental measures, which are likely to influence people's behaviour. Physical measures (e.g. fencing) and purely technical ones (e.g. detection systems) are not within the scope of this paper, since there is consistent literature indicating the effectiveness of these interventions. The method included a systematic review of the literature on the topic, as well as a collection of prevention practices from the railway operating community. Both the procedures were conducted during the EU-funded projects RESTRAIL (REduction of Suicides and Trespasses on the RAILway property) and GRAFFOLUTION (Awareness and prevention solutions against graffiti vandalism in public areas and transport). Although the results reveal promising preventive measures, very few studies show evidence for their effectiveness. We discuss how measures can be combined to increase their efficiency for trespass and vandalism prevention in the background of a behavioural theoretical framework applied to the rail context.

A Systematic Review of Railway Trespassing: Problems and Prevention Measures

“…Furthermore, education can start as early as 6 to 7 years old, and be incorporated into the school curriculum [69]. The same was suggested in another study, but for children aged 8 to 11 years old, in that trespassing can be reduced by implementing railway safety into the school curriculum using different teaching materials, educating parents, and combining education measures with other preventive measures [70]. Based on statistics, elderly people are less likely to be fatalities in trespassing accidents; however, the severity of their injuries is often higher than in other cases.…”

Assessing the Feasibility of Removing Graffiti from Railway Vehicles Using Ultra-Freezing Air Projection

“…In transport, illicit graffiti is the most common form of vandalism, referring to the rail network and related infrastructure, and is responsible for a large proportion of incidents [15]. It represents a public safety problem because of the risks to which the perpetrators of graffiti on tracks and in tunnels are exposed, while there are economic and operational costs associated with the repair and removal of the graffiti [16]. Train cars, sidings and stations can be considered state property and their damage can be interpreted as a means of making anti-government and/or political statements [3].…”