Ken Young

Said the following about Anglia Route Tasking Team:

“Due to both a local and national increase in route crime offences the Embedded Inspector for Network Rail Anglia, Steve Webster, devised a new concept to tackle and solve these problems in the form of a route crime tasking team. The team, consisting of two regular and two special constables is funded by the route and has the specific task of problem solving route crime hot spots and bringing offenders to justice.

Since their introduction in November 2017 their results have been staggering. This includes some 80 arrests or process of offenders including numerous lifesaving interventions and incident responses.

When the national trend is on the increase for trespass, vandalism, level crossing misuse and fatalities, Anglia has seen the opposite trend with a reduction in incidents and delay minutes associated with these of 30% year to date since April. This equates to about 11000 minutes and a cost saving in schedule 8 to the route of over £800k.

So successful has the concept been that the idea is being looked at nationally and other routes are looking to introduce the same model.

The team are based at the strategic location of the Romford ROC. They are the first team to be based in a ROC and this allows them to be at the heart of incident control so that they are aware of emerging issues from the start. They devise tasking based on NDFU data and use a range of covert and overt deployment to address issues. The team have access to an unmarked vehicle which they deploy in at short notice to effectively address and tackle issues as they are emerging: which allows them to be stopped from escalating into dangerous safety matters.

They work alongside Land Sheriffs to identify and prosecute offenders who are captured on cameras and this has included numerous trespassers and people who endanger safety on the railway, including children. One of the emerging issues has been around Fulbourn mental health hospital and the team have used a range of tactics including prosecution which was previously not explored and this has seen a huge reduction in offending by patients.

Level crossing enforcement has also been a large part of the workload. As part of this the team prosecute all possible late reports of misuse on both private and CCTV crossings and have had some extremely successful prosecutions for these offences. They also deploy both overtly and covertly to patrol the crossings and deal with offences as they happen. This has sent a strong message out in the community and two of the most problematic crossings on the route have seen a 2000 minute reduction in delay minutes caused by misuse year to date.

While an incident is live they have been praised for their close working relationships with the route control manager and incident officer, passing vital updates and information which enables a prompt recovery of services and limits impact on industry and passengers.

The team are proud of their route and go above and beyond what is expected daily to reduce delays, cost to industry and ultimately make the railway a safer and lower crime environment undoubtedly saving lives by their actions.“