A CRACKDOWN on rail crime is targeting young people in time for the school holidays.

Swindon is a hotspot for rail crime with 22 reported incidents of vandalism and 23 incidents of trespass in 2003.

Network Rail has backed National Railway Crime Week, saying that the dangers should be brought home to people.

Young people aged between eight and 16 commit 90 per cent of railway crime.

They usually hang around the railway tracks during the school holidays.

Nancy Garcia, Network Rail's route crime manager, said: "We must make young people sit up and take notice of the dangers and foolishness of using the railway as a playground.

"The consequences can be harsh, from being frog-marched home by the police to face angry parents, to hefty fines, prison and the possibly of serious injury and death. The school summer break is peak crime-time for the railways and we ask all schools and parents to use this National Railway Crime Week to hammer home the message to their young people keep off the tracks and stay alive."

Last August, the Evening Advertiser highlighted several weaknesses in security near Wootton Bassett, such as holes in fencing and incomplete barriers along the track.

Since then, no major incidents of vandalism or trespass have been reported but Network Rail still wants to hammer the message home.

Around 60 people died, including six children, while trespassing on the railway last year, not including suicides.

Bhavani Vadde