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

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.

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.

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).

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.