Is trespassing and antisocial behaviour getting worse?

[londonmidland]

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed, what seems like, daily reports of some sort of trespassing incident and/or anti-social behaviour on or around the railway.

Today, there has been reports of doors being forced open on a Cross Country service, as well as metal bars being thrown onto the track at Moorthorpe. Last week I believe there was a shopping trolley being thrown onto a Metro train in/around the Newcastle area.

It may be that it’s just that said incident(s) are being reported more publicly via social media, however, there seems to be one issue after another recently, I’ve found?

 

[Horizon22]

Based on the increase in threads on this forum complaining about anti-social behaviour then yes. I think some of this is an attitude that developed during lockdowns / restrictions as people were cooped up in their homes and got used to do whatever they pleased to some extent.

As for tresspassing, it was noted that whilst generally rail performance was excellent between April - December 2020, the number of trespass incidents remained stuboornly high. Again perhaps this is related to a general disregard for rules that others believe to have observed during Covid. Or perhaps boundaries have just been on the decline over the past years.

Or it might just be we are noticing it more despite occuring at same regularity (I'm sure there are delay figures on this somewhere), its being more widely reported, or the forum is a bunch of old farts.

 

[Speed43125]

Or it might just be we are noticing it more despite occuring at same regularity (I'm sure there are delay figures on this somewhere), its being more widely reported, or the forum is a bunch of old farts.

Something along these lines was my first reaction to be honest.

I'd suggest perhaps the relative lack of (perceived) delays over lockdown etc, both through lower patronage and lower chance of you yourself being out on the network to experience delays may have contributed to a heighted sense of these incidents now without them actually increasing, if that makes sense.

 

[yorkie]

There does appear to be more anti social behaviour than pre-pandemic, yes. This applies generally, not just to railways.

 

[Mojo]

In my experience of someone who attends numerous trespass incidents on a regular basis as an incident responder as well as hearing about them happening elsewhere, I’d say a significant number of such incidents are mental health related, rather than anyone doing it for some sort of criminal reason. Of the remaining number, it’s probably not far split between people retrieving dropped property on the track, and people being chased into the track by the police. People actually going on the track as some sort of antisocial behaviour is quite uncommon.

 

[WizCastro197]

Yes a Couple of months ago on the Platinum Jubilee day, I decided to travel into London but at Redhill 2 men boarded the train and started to play loud music, harass elderly couples who were travelling to Victoria as well. Station Dispatchers at Redhill were told but they said nothing could be done. Then a man from one of the elderly couples looks for someone (southern Staff member) Presumably an OBS but there wasn't one for some strange reason as there is always one. The men got of at ECR thank god so I could enjoy my journey in peace!

So Yes ASB has definitely increased a lot since pre pandemic

 

[johnnychips]

Yes a Couple of months ago on the Platinum Jubilee day, I decided to travel into London but at Redhill 2 men boarded the train and started to play loud music, harass elderly couples who were travelling to Victoria as well. Station Dispatchers at Redhill were told but they said nothing could be done. Then a man from one of the elderly couples looks for someone (southern Staff member) Presumably an OBS but there wasn't one for some strange reason as there is always one. The men got of at ECR thank god so I could enjoy my journey in peace!

So Yes ASB has definitely increased a lot since pre pandemic

I would say that is one opinion. I haven’t noticed any difference. However I know that @yorkie takes loads of train journeys, so he may be a more reliable observer than me: I just commute during conventional times, perhaps it is worse on other occasions.

 

[Tracked]

When I was a regular commuter by train I always noticed an increase in trespass incidents around the school holidays, particularly the summer ones. On a slight diversion from railways, ASB seems to have been worse in town this year, and in particular over the last few weeks