"John Mara" wrote in message
...

I guess I was looking at it more from the policing side than the
prosecution side. Did British Rail have railway police? Do the new
private companies have their own police?


The British Transport Police, formed in 1825 (1), deal with railway related
crime.

(1) http://www.btp.police.uk/History%20S...ety%20Main.htm

As far a getting rid of graffiti goes, the New York City Transit Authority
got rid of graffiti by cleaning it up as soon as it happened. There were
graffiti cleaning crews at most terminals. I was once on a train which
had some fresh graffiti on one side. I was sitting in the first car so I
overheard the radio conversation between the train operator and the
dispatcher. We had to wait for the other terminal track to open up so
that the graffiti would be on the platform side where the cleaners could
get at it.

On London Underground, trains are normally sent to depot at the first
opportunity to have grafiiti removed, once reported. If it is wet of
offensive, the train is normally taken out of service and sent to depot for
cleaning immediately.

On the other hand, NYCTA has had no luck at dealing with window
scratching. I suppose replacing the window every time would be too
expensive. I wonder if the scratch repair products used on car
windshields would work.

Sacrificial plastic coatings are being used on refurbished District Line
trains to prevent the damage done by "Dutch etching".