Scotland - train graffiti

[John Ashworth]

NB - there's a picture of the graffiti on the BBC web page - see link below

Police images show train graffiti

BBC
Page last updated at 08:31 GMT, Friday, 15 May 2009 09:31 UK


Images of graffiti sprayed onto a train as it sat in Wick railway station in Caithness have been released by British Transport Police.

Martene Rourke, 26, from Hanover in Germany and who has an address in Manchester, pled guilty to vandalism at Wick Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

She was ordered to pay train operator First ScotRail £1,290 in compensation.

British Transport Police said the sum was half the estimated cost of cleaning the graffiti from the train.

Pc Stephen Hughes said such acts of vandalism cost the rail industry across Britain millions of pounds each year.

He said: "This sentence sends out the clear message that vandalism and criminality on the rail network in Scotland will not be tolerated."

[Derek Walker]

While we all admit that graffiti is a eyesore, I was wondering, why dont they release coaches to "graffiti artists" to "ply their trade on" instead of trying to fight the scourge. I have seen some graffiti in Johannesburg that was really amazing, some of those vandals have real talent and that could be a quick way of making your trains more colourful, get a free paint job for them, and help local "artists" to showcase their work. You could even hold a competition for the best design on a train. Lets face it, you will never stop the problem, but maybe with a bit of judicious brainwork could exploit the situation.
With the right approach you would find that the casual vandal could find themselves being beaten around the head by the serious "painters" who dont like their works being vandalised.