Two pilot tests for the prevention of railway trespassing in Finland

We describe the effect of two Finnish pilot tests - Education in schools for 8-11 year old children and Video enforcement combined with sound warning - on the prevention of railway trespassing. The tests were conducted within the framework of a European RESTRAIL project which aims to reduce the occurrence of suicides and trespass on railway property and the costly service disruption these events cause (http://www.restrail.eu/). Judging from the results, both pilot tests are effective in reducing the amount of trespassing on Finnish railways. Railway safety education in schools had a positive effect for all the measured variables; thus we can reasonably assume that it will also have a positive effect on the frequency of trespassing in that area. Video enforcement combined with sound warning can reduce trespassing significantly. At both pilot test sites the reduction in frequency of trespassing was 18% and 44% respectively, but without control sites the effect may have been overestimated. The results of these Finnish pilot tests (together with the results of other RESTRAIL pilots) will be exploited in the RESTRAIL toolbox, including a wide variety of measures for the prevention of railway suicides and trespassing accidents in different circumstances.