Police use drones to catch teenagers who fired slingshots at Northern trains

Several trains travelling along the Bishop Auckland line were damaged by projectiles over the course of a week in July, at the beginning of the school holidays.

The train operator deployed travel safe officers to conduct patrols along the route and requested assistance from Network Rail and British Transport Police (BTP).

The officers used drones to locate some of the perpetrators and spoke to them about the dangers of their actions, before taking their personal details.

Northern’s crime reduction team said no other slingshot attacks have been recorded in the area since BTP intervened.

BTP Inspector Mary-Anne Snowden said: “Throwing objects at moving trains is hugely dangerous and an incredibly irresponsible thing to do.

“We continue to work with our industry partners to prevent incidents like these and identify those who are responsible.

“Mindless acts of vandalism like this can have potentially fatal consequences which is why we take every incident seriously.

“Drones have demonstrated their effectiveness in tackling a variety of incidents through proactive and reactive flights across the network giving officers a bird's-eye view of any criminality on the railway.”

Jason Wade, regional director for Northern, said: “We would like to thank the BTP officers who tracked down the perpetrators and stopped them from targeting our services.

“We cannot tolerate reckless behaviour which puts the safety of our customers and train crew at risk.

"The consequences of a projectile hitting a train travelling at speed are potentially devastating."

Northern staff regularly visit schools in the area, with colleagues from Network Rail, to warn children about the dangers of throwing or shooting projectiles at passenger trains and trespassing on the railway.

In December, Northern revealed the number of dangerous attacks on its trains was down almost 90% in the previous 12 months, with the number of recorded incidents falling from 69 to just eight.

The train operator says the chance of perpetrators being caught on camera is now much higher after it added a further 600 new CCTV cameras to the more than 1,000 that monitor its station estate.

It came after the operator installed 7,000 HD CCTV cameras on board its fleet of trains and invested £1.7m in the roll-out of more than 1,000 extra body-worn camera kits, taking the total number now in operation to 1,300. 

British Transport Police has access to all the footage and can use it in criminal prosecutions.  

Dozens of undercover and plain-clothed police officers and Northern's travel safe officers also regularly patrol services across the North of England. 

Anyone who witnesses items being thrown at trains or sees someone placing items on the track should contact British Transport Police immediately by texting 61016 or by calling 0800 40 50 40.

The force’s ‘Railway Guardian’ app is also available to download from Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.