British Transport Police - Rail Enthusiasts

[RailwayWatch]

I would like to first apologise for not responding to the posts sooner, my shift commitments have prevented me from attending to this sooner.

Can I say how pleased I am by the responses to my original post; your support and comments are appreciated and helpful. I would like to respond to them by explaining a little more about the intention for this scheme.

This scheme, whilst still being proposed, is designed to include the Rail enthusiast community, you present an alternative and attentive resource on the Railway It is not intended that membership of this scheme means you actively tackle crime, but that it is more like the Neighbourhood Watch and Airport Watch schemes currently in place where members report suspicious and criminal activity directly to the Police. I would not recommend any person tackle criminals but to call 999 and report the incident to Police. Also, this scheme is about being vigilant to all suspicious activities, it is impossible to say what a terrorist looks like but it is important to remain aware of suspicious activity that might be connected to terrorism.

I appreciate your comments regarding this being a London Based scheme, at this time, we are looking to Pilot this within the BTP London North Area with a view that it could become a national scheme. (please see our website for this map (http://www.btp.police.uk/about_us/ar...don_north.aspx)

I am aware that in the past, Rail Enthusiasts have been challenged or prevented from photographing while on Railway Property, I hope that this scheme and the use of visible lanyards and cards will help create a more cooperative relationship between Enthusiasts, the Railway and the Police and that membership would show that you were committed to keeping the Railways safe.

This would not be a card that you have to possess to take pictures, and having an ID card and Lanyard would not provide any extra access, privilege or authority but it would show who you were to Rail Staff, showing you are part of a scheme aimed at making the railways safe environments and taking part in a lawful pastime. Providing personal details to Police to be a member would mean that, in the event of serious incident or crime, we could appeal directly to members for information.

Thank you for taking the time to respond

[Tony]

Hi Railwatch, Sounds like a good scheme. Please keep us informed of any developments.

[Silver Fox Phil]

Looking forward to seeing how this all turns out. Looking forward to progress and I would definately take part. In fact we can all take part now, by always being vigilant and reporting suspicious activities. I know I would if I saw something that did not feel right, I think we all have a gut feeling when we see something wrong. Reporting it to the police would be the right thing to do.
Regards
Phil

[John H-T]

Will follow progress with interest and hope the project reaches Derbyshire.

Please keep updating us.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

[Madcaravanner]

Originally Posted by John H-T

Will follow progress with interest and hope the project reaches Derbyshire.

Please keep updating us.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

I will echo this John H-T anything that shows us the authorities don't see enthusiasts as trouble is good by me

[colchesterken]

It seems my area is covered by the plan...bring it on

I looked at the website and could not find anything on the proposal .keep us posted please

[RailwayWatch]

Thank you for all of your responses; it seems that the proposal of this scheme is striking the right chord with many rail enthusiasts and that it is seen by many of you as a positive idea.

Railway Watch is a British Transport Police initiative, it is still in a proposal form at this stage and I am looking at how we can bring it into action. As such, we don’t have any specific information on the BTP web pages at the moment but I am working on this.

I am looking at piloting this scheme in the london North area but I can see how much support there already is for other areas, I hope that if we can take this forward, it can be rolled out across all areas.

Thank you for all your posts, I will keep you updated.

[G6 UXU]

Many thanks and good luck, I hope that it comes to fruition like the one I have for the airports in the London area, it can only be good for everyone involved, we can all be the eyes and ears and try to make things safer for everyone that uses our railways.

[danphi11ips]

Good Evening and Welcome, after reading all the posts I ahve to agree, I visit North London several times a year and although have never had any problems, have been refused access at Euston before. In Plymouth I have given photographic evidence to Police of a tresspass incident which lead to an arrest and I would be more than happy to support the Police- I always inform staff about smoking on stations.

I would love to hear more about this scheme and hope it takes off nationwide as it is something that could be very worthwhile

Dan

[colchesterken]

I dont like spotting from Euston station
the best place is go along the road on the right hand side first left there is a slope road into the station , prob former taxi road
low wall at the top and a full view of the enterance to all lines