Graffiti on European railways...and other places worldwide-

Everyone: The recent Belgian train crash got me to thinking about European graffiti noticing the graffiti on some of the equipment.
I have noticed that transit systems there have some noticeable graffiti in pictures I have seen and some commuter and intercity systems have graffiti that can be noted.

The question I have is how much graffiti has taken influence in European transport systems and other places around the World if anyone does know?

What are penalties for those caught applying graffiti to rail vehicles in Europe and elsewhere if anyone knows?

I recall that graffiti took off in North America after the hip-hop culture took hold in the 80s and 90s following also movies that glorified the graffiti culture like "Wild Style" were released.
What was a regional and illegal trend (Philadelphia-where modern graffiti was born and soon afterwards New York City in the early-mid 70s era) later took off world-wide.

When did rail systems overseas first encountered graffiti if anyone knows? The term "American Graffiti" can definitely be applied here!
MACTRAXX

In London it is much less common than it used to be, as a result variously of different special paint surfaces, vigorous cleaning and crackdown by the police and courts. Belgians may not be as active in combatting the problem.
Note that the brown trains are quite old and belong to a fleet that is being withdrawn - indeed I was surprised to see they are still in operation.

Well graffiti is an American invention that rather should not have made it to the rest of the world. Some "enlightened" people see graffiti a form of art, lucky common sense prevails in the Netherlands, as applying it is illegal. Nevertheless graffiti can be found almost everywhere on objects related to railways and metros or other forms of public transport, even on places where it is outright dangerous to get to and to apply it, e.g. on the walls of metro tubes.

As a matter of fact some months ago two kids got hit by a Rotterdam metro when performing their “art”, one got killed the other received major injuries. The metro train was an early morning test drive just before the start of the regular service, from the reactions in the newspapers it almost appears that it was the metro train that should not be there instead of the to kids.

Any way in the Netherlands there is some enforcement and in the rare case these “artists” get caught there is a fine/punishment (mostly community service or cleaning up there work or paying for it) based on the size of their work. To support this there is a database with photos of graffiti applied in railway environment, which makes it possible to link people, when caught, with earlier works based on their tags. There are applications of paints or protective layers that eases the removal of graffiti on objects of public transport.

As to Belgium I do not know whether there is active enforcement on graffiti, as shown on the Bordeaux red train set in the crash, actually quite a few of these have received the current NMBS bright grey paint scheme by now, so these might be around for a while.

In the late nineties of last century trains in Italy where heavily affected by graffiti there was almost no locomotive, coach or wagon, which was not affected, but I do not know the current situation. From memory Norway and Sweden are relatively free of graffiti.

Gijs

In Japan, problems with graffiti are not as widespread as in N. America or Europe, pretty much being restricted to underpasses, the random wall, and certain urban areas (i.e. Shibuya in Tokyo) frequented by the younger hipster crowd. Trains are very rarely targeted, and if they are hit, are immediately taken out of service and cleaned- passengers would not tolerate dirty looking trains and cleanliness is highly valued in this society. An example of this was a shinkansen train that was defaced a couple of years ago:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 702a7.html

Foreign graffiti "artists" have targeted Japanese trains in the past, and have since been denied entry by immigration authorities. Japanese take a dim view of graffiti, even moreso if it's carried out by foreigners on their efficient, spotless trains, which Japanese almost to the person are justifiably proud of.

http://www.busaustralia.com/forum/viewt ... 20&t=33528

Boston's MBTA very rarely has issues with graffiti, but I'd say security is fairly decent at all hours, even when the system shuts down in the early morning. So there's not much opportunity to tag the trains. I recall it actually made the news when a few Green Line cars were hit one night. They were immediately removed from the service lineup and scrubbed down. They won't put cars in service if they've been tagged.

Graffiti has recently become a big problem here in Spain, particularly on the RENFE system where even brand new locomotives have been targetted, but then their security is somewhat haphazard, in many places there are no fences at all. One is far more likely to be prevented from taking photographs from public places than from illegally wandering round on railway property!

While this trend may have started in America, it oddly enough seems to be more of a European problem now.

In NYC, subway and commuter trains run clean. There is a zero tolerance policy towards graffiti. The stations are for the most part clean as well, although you will see the odd tag here and there that sticks around for a week or two before it's washed off or painted over. Trains only run until the end of their current run (or maybe the end of the day) before they're cleaned once graffiti is discovered. Any graffiti you do see is of the hit-and-run variety - it has to be done quick. You never see the big elaborate murals like you used to see in the 1970's.

We pretty regularly get European kids over here these days who don't realize that this former hotbed of graffiti is no longer very tolerant of it (at least on passenger trains), and they try to bomb trains and routinely get arrested, often in the act. This is not just a ticket anymore, either; they're often threatened with jail time, although I'm not sure what's actually come of any of these cases.

As for other parts of the world, I can only really speak for Japan, where I am building up a decent amount of experience with the rail system. I've never once seen graffiti on any train or in any station, although some of the grubbier areas of Tokyo and Osaka do have some on the streets themselves. Not a lot, though. The trains are kept spotless, including the freight trains (unlike the US, where freight trains seem to be getting worse now that passenger trains have been pretty well cleaned up).

I do remember going to London some years back and the underground trains were mostly covered in graffiti, but I understand it's better now. I was also pretty surprised by this picture in a NY Times article on the Greek rail system, which shows a modern train with graffiti on its nose that seems to stretch along its side (though you can't actually see it), though I guess it is an article about how little money the system is making, so maybe they can't afford to clean the trains.

One thing I've often wondered is how much of an issue is caused by graffiti covering up the markings on the cars, like the reporting marks, weight/height restrictions, inspection markings, etc. I often see at least the reporting marks covered up. Also, can the paint from the graffiti cause other problems, like impairing the RFID tag system?

Obviously it can make a mess of windows on passenger cars and locomotives, but has there ever been problems like of the paint getting into the intake filters, or causing other non-aesthetic problems?