Suicide prevention: Transport
Network Rail, train operators and British Transport Police all have a significant role in responding to and reducing suicides on the rail network. Local and national highway authorities have a similar role on the road network.
Warning: this briefing discusses suicide which some readers may find distressing.
RailwaysSuicide accounts for most fatalities on the railways in Great Britain. There were 290 public and passenger fatalities in 2022/23, of which 265 were suicide or suspected suicide fatalities. The number of suicide attempts (including fatalities and injuries) on the railways has remained around 280 to 360 per year since 2011-12. There were 10 recorded suspected suicides between 2016 and 2022 on Northern Ireland’s rail network.
In 2022 the Office of Rail and Road estimated that the financial cost of one suicide is approximately £275,000 and that 357,888 minutes of train delays were attributed to suicide events on the network in 2020/21.
The key organisations involved in suicide prevention on the railways in Great Britain are:
- the British Transport Police (BTP) who respond to most suicide incidents,
- Network Rail, the public body which owns and manages all rail infrastructure in Great Britain, and
- Train operating companies whose staff operate passenger and freight services.
In Northern Ireland, in place of the BTP the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PNSI) works in partnership with Translink (the main state-owned bus and rail provider) through its specialist Safe Transport Team.
British Transport PoliceFor the financial year 2023/24 the BTP reported that their officers made 2,242 life-saving interventions (over 40 per week), and 393 post incident site visits following a suicide or other death.
Network RailNetwork Rail says it works to reduce rail suicide along with the wider rail industry, BTP, national agencies such as Public Health England, and charities such as Samaritans, Chasing the Stigma and Shout. It also supports the government’s wider strategy as outlined in the Department of Health and Social Care’s suicide prevention strategy for England: 2023 to 2028.
Train operatorsTrain operators are required to each have a suicide prevention plan as a condition of their franchise contract with the Department for Transport. Since 2010 train operators, along with the British Transport Police and Network Rail, have taken part in an ongoing Rail Suicide Prevention programme which aims to share best practice across the rail industry, identifies high-risk locations, and provides training and resources.
RoadsThere is no official record of the number of suicides and attempted suicides taking place on roads in the UK every year. In 2017 the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, a charity, said that there are likely to be around 50 deaths each year by suicide on UK roads.
National HighwaysNational Highways is responsible for England’s Strategic Road Network (SRN), which includes all motorways and major A-roads.
National Highways’ 2022 Suicide Prevention Strategy [PDF] sets out a vision to prevent suicides, intervene in crisis situations, and provide ‘postvention’ (reducing staff trauma, learning from suicide cases) where necessary. It aims to achieve this vision by, among other actions, ensuring “consistent and accurate recording of suicide related incidents across our network” and using such data to identify areas on the SRN for improvement.
National Highways’ 2024 Annual Report notes their continued engagement with the Samaritans, and that most of their suicide prevention interventions have been on raising the height of bridge parapets to act as a deterrent at high-risk locations.
Devolved administrations and local authoritiesThe devolved administrations manage their own motorways and major A-roads, but none have published an equivalent suicide prevention strategy for their roads.
Except for motorways and major A-roads, local authorities across Great Britain are responsible for roads in their area. The exception to this is Northern Ireland where the Department for Infrastructure is responsible for all roads.
Local authorities have powers such as providing suicide prevention signs at ‘high-risk’ locations such as bridges.
The Local Government Association’s 2020 suicide prevention guide encourages councils to develop suicide preventions strategies which identify high-frequency suicide locations and to “remove access to the means of suicide by providing extra safeguards and support at buildings, rail crossings, cliff edges and bridges that have been used by people to take their own lives”.
Further ReadingMore information can be found in the Library briefings on Suicide prevention policy and Suicide statistics.