Environmental Risk Factors for Railway Suicide: A Nationwide Analysis of England’s Mainline Network (2019

Publication dates
Title	Environmental Risk Factors for Railway Suicide: A Nationwide Analysis of England’s Mainline Network (2019–2021)
Type	Journal article
Authors	Lisa Marzano, Sophie Brown, Ruth Spence, Laura Joyner, Hilary Norman, Bob Fields, Arianna Barbin, Ian Kruger and Steven MacDonald Hart
Abstract	Objective Suicide is the leading cause of death on the railway networks, yet little is known about the geography and socio-environmental determinants of such deaths in England. Method We analyzed official records of all suspected suicides recorded on England’s mainline railway from April 2019 to March 2021 (N = 436), alongside area-level data (e.g., deprivation and urbanicity) and railway characteristics (e.g., station size). We used SaTScan’s Poisson discrete scan statistic to detect spatial–temporal clusters and compared suicides at station and non-station locations, including stations with no recorded suicides over the study period. Results Most railway suicides—particularly those occurring at stations—took place in urban areas, typically at locations with a very low incidence of previous suicides. A large majority (84.5%) lived within 2 miles of a station and died close to home (median 2.1 miles) or their last known location (1.5 miles). Suicides occurred most often at stations (43.3%), followed by trackside locations (37.6%), foot/level crossing (15.1%) or other rail areas (3.9%). These were often not the nearest station to the deceased (59.6%), but were generally smaller and more likely to be served by fast/non-stopping trains. Across the network, stations without suicides were far less likely to be served by such trains (66% vs. 94.3%; OR = 6.62, 95% CI 3.33–13.18). Conclusions Urbanicity and the availability of non-stopping train services are key predictors of railway suicide. Restricting access to high-speed trains—especially at smaller urban stations and at non-station locations—could be an effective element of broader strategies and local partnership approaches to prevent suicide.
Journal	Archives of Suicide Research
ISSN	1381-1118
	1543-6136
Year	2025
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
Publisher's version	Environmental Risk Factors for Railway Suicide A Nationwide Analysis of England s Mainline Network 2019 2021 .pdf License CC BY 4.0 File Access Level Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2025.2595428
Web address (URL)	http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2025.2595428
Published online	04 Dec 2025

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Environmental Risk Factors for Railway Suicide: A Nationwide Analysis of England’s Mainline Network (2019–2021)

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