Graffiti scrawls account for the largest proportion of vandalism at Deutsche Bahn (DB). In almost 24,000 of a total of around 35,000 cases, damage caused by graffiti was found last year, a railway spokeswoman told the German Press Agency. A sixth of this is accounted for by regional and S-Bahn trains in Berlin and Brandenburg alone. The train estimated the nationwide damage caused by graffiti at 12.1 million euros in 2022. This is a slight decrease compared to the year before (2021: 12.2 million euros). The group also attributes this to better protections — and controls.
“Our specialized teams work closely with the federal police to combat vandalism and graffiti,” explained DB security chief Hans-Hilmar Rischke. From January to May of this year, almost 1,200 suspects were arrested – including more than 300 sprayers in the act. According to DB, the security forces catch more than 3,200 suspects every year. A quarter of them are sprayers.
These would be handed over to the federal police on site. “We consistently report every case of vandalism and secure civil claims against the culprits,” said security chief Rischke. Deutsche Bahn put the total damage caused by such incidents at almost 40 million euros.
The train tries to reduce damage caused by vandalism, for example by providing vehicles with a protective coating and applying foils or coatings at train stations. In addition, video technology is being used to make it easier for the federal police to identify suspects.
In addition to personnel controls, the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) also rely on this. Last year, the company spent 1.2 million euros to remove graffiti damage, a spokesman said. In 2020 it was 1.4 million euros.
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