Cameras Bid to Catch Railway Graffiti Vandals

9:19am (UK)

By Owen Fairclough, PA News

A rail operator has become the first in Britain to install a new type of camera to snare graffiti artists who vandalise its trains, it announced today.

Birmingham-based Central Trains set up three of the devices at sidings in Worcester and Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, last week.

The firm intends to invest in up to 30 more Flashcams at notorious graffiti spots across its network, which extends across the Midlands up to the North West and down to South Wales.

The Flashcams are similar to those used to catch speeding motorists, and also give an audio warning informing vandals they have been trapped.

Police are currently studying the first rolls of film in the hope that culprits who have daubed carriages and locomotives have been caught.

Although other firms have trialled the Flashcams, Central is the first to install them on a permanent basis.

Sidings in Birmingham, Boston, Leicester, Nottingham and Shrewsbury are among those also due to receive the devices.

The cameras are activated at night with motion sensors set to pick up any movement around parked trains.

Central imported the idea from Los Angeles as a way of trying to reduce graffiti, which costs the firm"300,000 every year.

Spokesman Ged Burgess said:"It has been very successful in reducing graffiti in the railway yards there, which is a far bigger problem for the US than it is here.

"Nevertheless, we are hoping that it will result in a reduction in the inconvenience that passengers have when their trains are not in service because we are having to clean graffiti off the windows.

"We also hope it will improve safety because at the end of the day, graffiti artists are putting their lives at risk by trespassing on the sidings."

Mr Burgess said Central currently dealt with at least one major graffiti problem a week, which led to a train" usually an early morning commuter service" being cancelled because windows or lights had been obscured by the paint or the graffiti was offensive.

"The added bonus for us is that these can be installed for"1,300 per unit" a fraction of the cost of CCTV systems" which can be up to"30,000 each," he added.

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