We spend more than £3.5 million a year removing graffiti – money which could be better spent improving the railway.
Creating graffiti is dangerous – especially if you go onto the tracks – and attracts a fine of up to £1,000 for trespassing on the railway.
When we remove graffiti
When you report graffiti to us, we’ll respond to it as quickly as we can.
While we try to remove all graffiti, we prioritise work to make sure those areas where it affects safety are tackled first.
Our teams tackle graffiti in the following order:
- Where it impacts safety
- Offensive, racist and sexist graffiti
- Graffiti that’s visible to passengers and the general public
- Graffiti on railway routes, including location cabinets, sub-stations and relay rooms
- Other graffiti as resources allow
Preventing graffiti
We use a number of different methods to prevent graffiti including:
- Funding partnerships with local authorities – these often have their own removal teams so can act much quicker
- Educating young people about the dangers of graffiti by working with third parties such as the British Transport Police and local youth associations
- Identifying and monitoring offenders using CCTV and regular checks
- Using anti-graffiti technologies such as specially designed paints, improving security and allowing plants and trees to grow over surfaces prone to graffiti
Need more information?
If you want to know more about how we deal with graffiti on the railway, or want to report an incident, please get in touch with us.