London rail trespasser disrupted nearly 1,000 trains at a cost of £1,200,000

A man has been jailed after he wreaked havoc on one of the UK’s busiest railway lines in southwest London. He disrupted almost 1,000 trains after slipping onto the South West Main Line, which ferries thousands of commuters between London Waterloo and Surrey, Somerset, Dorset and Hampshire.

Ryan Seymour, 41, trespassed onto the railway tracks on Monday, August 19 last year at New Malden, Kingston-upon-Thames. He entered high-voltage tracks with trains whizzing past every couple of minutes that could ‘kill instantly.’. After being spotted on the tracks, he fled from the police, running across four busy live tracks powered by 750-volt electric rails.

A train passes at this location every two minutes on average. One driver was forced to make an emergency stop at 75mph when Seymour ran to hide in the bush by the tracks on his risky escape. Network Rail switched off the power to keep Seymour and the pursuing police officers safe.

As it powers trains, four South Western Railway services and passengers on board were trapped outside of stations along with ‘widespread’ chaos on the entire SWR network, Network Rail said. Tom Desmond, an operations director for Network Rail, said that the trespasser was ‘very lucky to escape unharmed, with the risk of both trains travelling through the area at nearly 100mph as well as the threat of the third rail, which carries enough voltage to kill – instantly.’.

His actions impacted 921 train services, with 358 cancelled completely and parts of 81 services axed. To get the latest news from the capital visit Metro's London news hub. A total of 13,178 minutes of delays were accumulated- worth nine days. The delays cost Network Rail, the operator of the UK’s rail infrastructure, and UK taxpayers £1,200,000.

Seymour was able to escape from the police and away from the tracks before power was restored at about 4.30pm. But train services felt the brunt of the incident for the rest of the day and into the following day. London Waterloo became overcrowded after ‘so many cancellations and late running services,’ Network Rail said. Trains were forced to terminate at Clapham Junction and disruption continued until the following morning.

Mr Desmond said the impact of trespassing on the rail network and customers ‘cannot be underestimated with the associated widespread disruption and multiple stranded trains.’. Seymour was eventually captured several days later after an investigation led to his identification.

He appeared at Kingston Crown Court on February 4 where he pleaded guilty to a number of motoring offences and intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance. He was sentenced for eight months for intentionally causing a public nuisance when trespassing onto the railway and 10 months for dangerous driving, with the two sentences to run consecutively.

Detective Sergeant Tim Deans, from the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘Seymour caused widespread disruption across south-west London and beyond. The Met’s investigation and the sentence handed to him demonstrates we will take action when people deliberately cause misery to others through criminal and anti-social behaviour.’.

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