Railway Trespass Prevention: Spatial Analysis of Incidents to Connect to Countermeasures

Abstract

Railway incidents continue to be a safety concern for transportation agencies throughout the United States. In particular, trespasser incidents, which are the most frequent cause of railway fatalities in the United States, are those that involve a person whose presence is prohibited or actions are unlawful involving railway property. By analyzing past data on trespassing incidents, recommendations for future improvement through countermeasures can be made. This research investigates historical trespasser incidents throughout national Amtrak data from 2011–2017. The data were analyzed at the national as well as megaregional levels in order to determine trends using 14 factors, including both incident (such as time of day, precrash activity, and gender) as well as geographic (such as population density and average income based on the census level in which the incident occurred) factors. A case study on a segment of Amtrak’s northeast corridor alignment is provided in order to serve as an example of connecting to countermeasure recommendations.