Written Question: Rail Trespass Revenue Loss

Lord Moylan: 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.

Minister of State, Department for Transport (Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, CBE):

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