Railways: Trespass
(asked on 13th May 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many passenger rail delay minutes were attributed to trespassers in each year from 2020/21 to 2025/26.
The British Transport Police work in collaboration with the rail industry to minimise disruption to the network following a trespass incident. Their activity includes innovative new tactics such as the deployment of Beyond Visual Line of Sight drones, which provide early situational awareness to support officers on the ground and inform decision-making at live incidents so the railway can reopen as quickly as possible.
The table below summarises delay minutes attributed to trespass (excluding fatalities) in the years 2020/21 to 2025/26.
Table: delay minutes and incidents attributed to trespass, total delay minutes and trespass delay minutes as a share of total delay minutes, Great Britain, 2020/21 to 2025/26
Financial Year | Trespass delay Minutes1 | Incident Count1 | Total Network delay minutes2 | Trespass delay minutes as a share of total delay minutes2 |
2020/21 | 388,444 | 9,409 | 6,744,325 | 6% |
2021/22 | 561,702 | 11,547 | 10,484,576 | 5% |
2022/23 | 718,916 | 11,574 | 13,730,898 | 5% |
2023/24 | 864,867 | 12,712 | 15,496,138 | 6% |
2024/25 | 1,120,521 | 13,588 | 15,989,802 | 7% |
2025/26 | 1,148,914 | 13,902 | 16,756,962 | 7% |
Notes: 2020/21 to 2022/23 were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic
Source:
1 Network Rail
2 ORR Table 3184 - Delay minutes by operator and cause (periodic) | ORR Data Portal