Railway vandalism 'endemic' and escalating

Malicious damage on railway property has soared to record levels, sparking warnings yesterday that the upsurge in vandalism could cause a catastrophic accident.

The British Transport Police reported 15,075 cases last year, an increase of 13 per cent on the previous year, including obstacles on lines, missiles thrown at trains, rolling stock vandalism and arson.

The rail industry is preparing to launch a campaign to combat the vandalism epidemic, which costs it an estimated £250m a year.

According to police figures – kept on a fiscal-year basis – there were 12,855 cases of vandalism in 1998-99; 13,743 in 1999-2000; 13,349 in 2000-01, climbing to 15,075 last year (ending March 2002). But a spokesman said: "There were many more incidents than this, perhaps 10 times as many."

The figures were released as investigators continued to investigate the cause of last month's Potters Bar crash, in which seven passengers died. Sabotage has not yet been ruled out as the cause. In the past five months alone, the police have reported instances of metal goal posts, concrete fence panels, a tyre, a tree-trunk and a plank of wood left on railway tracks.

A large object was dropped from a footbridge through the cab window of a train travelling at 60mph in Staffordshire. A freight train carrying chemicals was derailed near Liverpool after youths tampered with points. Trespassers broke into a signal box in Redcar and turned all the signals to green.

Railtrack has launched a campaign to clear all trackside debris that could be used by vandals by October.

Sue Nelson, Railtrack's representative on a multi-body anti-vandalism group, said the industry was determined to alert councils, courts and the public and described the problem as "endemic".

She said: "It took 20 to 25 years to get people switched on to the dangers of drink-driving. We think we have a similar battle on our hands. As an industry, we also have to do our bit, with proper fencing in hotspot sites and making sure people don't get the tools to do the job."

Ms Nelson called for tougher penalties for offences such as trespass, which were still regarded as "cosy and quaint" by some courts, she said. "We need to get them to understand that the potential to cause a catastrophe is quite real. We do not want to frighten people off the network, but we want the judiciary to understand what sort of thing this behaviour can lead to."

A spokeswoman for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said that central Government, local councils and Railtrack were working together to tackle vandalism, although this was "primarily a societal problem".

She said that the HSE would not hesitate to take action against Railtrack where it was judged to have been negligent, citing the £50,000 fine it was given in 1999 when a 12-year-old boy was killed by a freight train on a site in Nottinghamshire where the boundary fence was largely missing.