Network Rail: campaign to reduce alcohol-related railway incidents

To combat the 7,419 recorded alcohol-related incidents on or around the railway in 2016/17, 16% of which took place over the festive period; Network Rail, British Transport Police, RSSB and charity Drinkware have launched a campaign called Keep a Clear Head. The scheme is also encouraging the public to keep a clear head on the rail network using local and national communications channels, including across social media.
December 22, 2017 Read time: 3 mins
To combat the 7,419 recorded alcohol-related incidents on or around the railway in 2016/17, 16% of which took place over the festive period; 5021 Network Rail, British Transport Police, 7978 RSSB and charity Drinkware have launched a campaign called Keep a Clear Head. The scheme is also encouraging the public to keep a clear head on the rail network using local and national communications channels, including across social media.


Figures from Network Rail revealed that 21 people were killed due to alcohol-related incidents at the platform edge, and a further 91 people have received serious injuries over the last ten years. Passengers boarding and alighting trains were involved in 469 alcohol-related accidents in the last five years.

Network Rail is sharing its message to smartphones on the rail network in locations where there have been higher levels of alcohol-related incidents or with more pubs and clubs nearby. There will also be alcohol awareness events in stations in the run-up to Christmas.

Level crossing managers will provide safety information to its users and a virtual reality film, Keep a clear head, can be viewed on the level crossings app.

The top 10 stations with alcohol-related delay-causing incidents revealed that Birmingham New Street had 452 between 2012/13 to 2017/18, followed by 433 incidents at Reading station over the same period.

Danger points for intoxicated passengers include not heeding the warning signs at level crossings; trips and slips at the platform edge and on station escalators and; straying onto railway tracks.

According to British Transport Police, there has also been a rise in violence at many of the busiest railway stations over the festive season, much of which is caused by excess alcohol. Between 24 November 2016 and 2 January 2017, the number of violent offences reported at railway stations across England, Scotland and Wales increased by 14% compared with the same period in 2015/16. Almost one in 10 of those offences involved alcohol.

Allan Spence, head of public and passenger safety, Network Rail, said: Though trains are the safest way to get around, passengers and people living near the railway must always remember that it can be a dangerous place. That’s why we’re reminding the public to remain alert to those dangers whilst they’re having fun over the festive season. Taking a short cut across the tracks, chancing it at level crossings or tripping at the platform edge can, at best cause delays to your journey; at worse it can result in serious harm. Enjoy yourself but don’t let alcohol stop you or your fellow passengers from getting to where you need to be – keep a clear head.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Carol Schweiger: "I never looked back"
    January 14, 2025
    Carol Schweiger is a legend of the ITS industry. She talks to Adam Hill about her career, real train sets, equity, AI, quantum computing – and the difficulty of behaviour change
    Read More
  • Home based real time travel information drives reduction in car use
    January 20, 2012
    David Crawford investigates a new approach to discouraging car use - the 'kitchen as travel centre'. ITS technology working together with UK planning legislation is driving an innovative 'kitchen as travel centre' approach to home design which is boosting public transport as an alternative to car use. The combination is already proving powerful enough to assuage environmentalist opposition to major urban developments. It is also being seen as a way of delivering wider social and community benefits inside an
    Read More
  • Jenoptik uses sensor fusion to avoid monitoring confusion
    January 26, 2018
    Jenoptik’s Uwe Urban looks at the advantages of ‘sensor fusion’ for the ITS sector. When considering the ideal sensing and monitoring system to enable the ITS sector to deliver improvements in mobility and road safety, for general policing security and border protection, we have to think beyond radar-base systems or laser scanners. What is needed today are solutions for detecting and tracking vehicles while recording evidence to deacide if any action is necessary. There is no sole sensor capable of
    Read More
  • Progress towards a pan-European cooperative infrastructure
    July 17, 2012
    Kallistratos Dionelis, General Secretary of ASECAP, makes the case for a lightly regulated, staged progression towards a pan-European cooperative infrastructure environment, the achievement of which should look to engender cooperation between the public and private sectors. Such an approach, he says, is the only real path to success.
    Read More

Highlighted Content