Public help gets railway graffiti tackled in Liverpool

Thursday 18 Feb 2021

Public help gets railway graffiti tackled in Liverpool

Region & Route:: North West & Central; | North West & Central: North West

Offensive graffiti on a recently replaced railway footbridge in Liverpool has been removed in a continued blitz against rail network vandalism across the North West.

A special Network Rail clean-up team quickly got to work on Mossley Hill footbridge after reports came through from concerned members of the public.

The new bridge was only rebuilt in Easter 2020 as part of a major £980,000 Great North Rail Project investment.

The continued clean-up by Network Rail supports Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ commitment to improve the look and feel of the railway for passengers and people living beside it.

Allan Gibbs-Monaghan, infrastructure delivery manager at Network Rail, said: “It’s really frustrating that only very recently just shy of a million pounds was invested replacing the footbridge in Mossley Hill and now it has fallen victim to this needless vandalism.

“We thank members of the public who reported this, who like us want the railway to be a clean, welcoming environment for people who travel on it and live and work near it.

"Our message to graffiti vandals is that the railway is not your canvas, and clearing up this criminal damage is a huge waste of taxpayers’ money which could be better spent improving passenger journeys."

Graffiti is a blight on the railway and Network Rail spends £3.5m every year cleaning offensive material.

It is also extremely dangerous for those trespassing onto tracks to commit acts of vandalism, as well as being a criminal offence

Incidents of graffiti can be reported to Network Rail’s 24-hour national helpline on 03457 11 41 41.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - North West & Central Region
07740 782954
NWCmediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.