How vandalism disrupts rail visitors | EUROtoday

As of: March 1, 2026 • 4:13 a.m

According to the Federal Police, harm to trains and rail methods has elevated up to now 12 months. Deutsche Bahn estimates that the harm brought on by graffiti alone quantities to 12 million euros yearly.

By Andreas König, Helena Dähler and David Donschen, rbb

According to the Federal Police, harm to trains and rail methods has elevated up to now 12 months. Deutsche Bahn estimates that the harm brought on by graffiti alone quantities to 12 million euros yearly.

“No stops at Wedding train station due to vandalism damage”. An announcement that could possibly be heard on Berlin S-Bahn trains for the reason that starting of the 12 months. Anyone who needed to get to this closed S-Bahn station needed to take the subway or buses and settle for detours and longer journey instances. Traffic has solely been operating as normal once more for the reason that starting of February. A fireplace on New Year’s Eve, which the federal police suspect was negligent arson brought on by pyrotechnics, destroyed the supervision constructing and technical methods and resulted in weeks of repairs. The railway estimates the harm at round 300,000 euros.

The penalties of the act are positively severe – each economically and for a lot of passengers who depend on the S-Bahn each day. Unlike a closed S-Bahn station, buildings and trains sprayed with paint are sometimes solely perceived as a facet observe, as an on a regular basis nuisance, though right here too the harm triggered is in depth and the implications are noticeable.

LKA: Not artwork, however Damage to property

Trains, prepare stations and different amenities in Berlin are sprayed most continuously throughout the nation. The federal police registered 1,983 graffiti offenses within the capital between January and October 2025 alone, and the development is rising. For comparability: in Munich and Hamburg there have been 872 and 515 respectively in the identical interval. According to the Federal Police, the numbers confer with all railway corporations. The perpetrators normally stay unidentified.

That ought to change in Berlin by means of a joint commissionerate of the State Criminal Police Office and the Federal Police, which is liable for safety at prepare stations and amenities of the Deutsche Bahn and the S-Bahn. “Especially with larger groups of perpetrators and suspects, you can see that they put in immense effort and also prepare appropriate plans to commit such graffiti acts,” says Detective Sascha Silawi from the Berlin LKA. He and his staff maintain the intense instances.

The perpetrators are principally male, between 21 and 45 years previous and are available from all kinds {of professional} teams: craftsmen, docs and college students are amongst them, says Silawi. It’s about consideration and recognition. Videos offered on social media play an necessary function on this.

One of those younger sprayers calls himself Fiak. He would moderately not be acknowledged. He has been spraying trains and stations for years and has been caught. “I do art through spray paint, and I worry about making that paint look nice somewhere,” says Fiak. He does not see himself as a prison. “When you get picked up, it puts you off for a while,” the younger man continued. “But many people associate it with a kind of addiction. And you just relapse.”

Sascha Silawi doesn’t think about spraying to be artwork. “From a police perspective, we don’t differentiate between artistic activity and property damage.” says the detective. “For us, an act of graffiti remains damage to property.”

Cleaning prices time, cash and personnel

It then stays the duty of the railway corporations to eradicate the implications of the spraying campaigns. Deutsche Bahn has devoted a separate web page to the subject on its web site. In addition to prison prosecution, the group additionally factors out the hazards to the sprayers, for instance from transferring trains or excessive electrical voltage on energy rails, and the financial harm brought on by the graffiti.

“Millions of passengers don’t find graffiti cool at all, but rather feel harassed by it and affect their subjective sense of security. That’s why the railway removes graffiti as quickly as possible,” it says, amongst different issues. The firm has estimated harm brought on by spraying at round 12 million euros per 12 months.

In the Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn (NEB) workshop, supervisor Frank Galle has to take care of graffitied trains two to a few instances a month. The NEB operates primarily in regional visitors north and east of Berlin. The workshop boss is at the moment standing in entrance of two wagons which have been sprayed extensively, together with over the home windows and doorways. It will value round 5,000 euros to scrub them, says Galle. In addition, there may be the downtime of the automobile and the workshop capability that might maybe have been used for different issues.

And substitute trains first must be delivered to the place they’re wanted, provides Daniel Zawadsky. He is collectively liable for the availability of trains within the management middle of the Niederbarnim Railway. “If I have a train in Angermünde that is completely smeared, I first have to get a train to Angermünde,” is how Zawadsky describes such a scenario. “And the train, which is smeared, from Angermünde back to Berlin-Lichtenberg for repairs.” This is all related to prices and personnel, mentioned the dispatcher.

In the top, these damaging actions by people come on the expense of everybody, whether or not corporations, police or passengers. And that applies no matter whether or not it’s an S-Bahn station that’s closed for weeks after a fireplace or sprayed wagons that must be taken out of service.

You can discover out extra concerning the subject within the rbb24 report Destruction – How vandalism disrupts rail visitors within the ARD media library.