Railways: Trespass

(asked on 9th July 2026) - View Source
Questioner
Lord Moylan Portrait
Lord Moylan
(Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on 2 June (HL335), how many rail trespass incidents were recorded in each of the last 30 years; and what estimate they have made of the long-term revenue loss arising from those incidents in each of those years.

Answered by
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill Portrait
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill
Minister of State (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 21st July 2026

Data supplied by Network Rail indicates that the volume of trespass incidents increased from 6,415 in 2014/15 to 13,921 in 2025/26 (an increase of 117 per cent).

Over the same time, when adjusted for inflation, the estimated cost of delays associated with trespass incidents rose from £46.7 million to £85.5 million (an increase of 83 per cent).

When adjusted for inflation, the average estimated cost per trespass incident has reduced over time, from approximately £7,300 in 2014/15 to around £6,100 in 2025/26.

Volume of trespass related incidents and estimated costs of associated delays, annual, Great Britain, 2014/15 to 2025/26

Financial year

Volume of incidents1,2,4

Costs3,5 (£million, current prices)

Costs (£million, 2025/26 prices)

Average cost per incident
(2025/26 prices)

2014/15

6,415

33.6

46.7

£ 7,300

2015/16

7,488

34.4

47.5

£ 6,300

2016/17

8,336

44.0

59.7

£ 7,200

2017/18

9,576

54.1

72.3

£ 7,500

2018/19

9,798

61.2

80.2

£ 8,200

2019/20

10,127

66.6

85.2

£ 8,400

2020/21

9,410

35.7

43.5

£ 4,600

2021/22

11,559

50.2

60.8

£ 5,300

2022/23

11,583

64.9

74.4

£ 6,400

2023/24

12,726

84.0

90.5

£ 7,100

2024/25

13,611

86.5

89.8

£ 6,600

2025/26

13,921

85.5

85.5

£ 6,100

Notes:

1. Incidents are delay causing incidents attributed to XA,VA reason codes

2. An incident can appear in more than one rail period if delay was suffered in more than one period

3. Costs are an internal Network Rail estimate of the long-term revenue loss due to those incidents (based on the economics behind the Schedule 8 performance regime)

Source: Network Rail

4. Delay & Cancellation metric dashboard

5. Process for Performance Improvement (PfPI) Costs are from the Performance System database Business Objects attribution universe

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