AS “Pasažieru vilciens” has sent proposals to the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Justice to make amendments to the regulatory framework, urging to increase the amount of penalties for damaging trains, including illegal marking of trains, or to reclassify such criminal offenses as crimes against the state. According to Article 89 of the Criminal Law, the maximum penalty for activities aimed at undermining the operation of the transport industry, as well as institutions or organizations with the aim of harming the Republic of Latvia, is imprisonment for a period of five to twelve years.
Statistics compiled by the company show that the number of cases of intentional and malicious damage to trains is increasing year by year. If ten episodes of train damage were recorded in 2020, then in 2023 vandals damaged trains 52 times, causing significant losses to the company. In total, in the last four years, AS “Pasažieru vilciens” has encountered more than 150 acts of vandalism against trains.
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The most common form of damage to trains is unauthorized tagging. There have been more than 100 such cases in recent years. As a result, damage is caused to the company – the elimination of the consequences of marking damage and the trains standing idle until the drawings are cleaned. However, the interests of all society (passengers) are most significantly affected, because JSC “Pasažieru vilciens” is actually the only provider of public transport services by rail in the entire territory of Latvia, and it has the obligation to provide a certain number of rolling stock for passenger transportation, therefore any downtime of trains means that the fulfillment of the goal set by the Law on Public Transport Services – to provide accessible public transport services to citizens – is threatened. Also, all public interests are affected, as the public (passengers) are limited in their ability to visit educational, medical institutions, workplaces, state and municipal institutions during their normal working hours.
Although JSC “Pasažieru vilciens” has taken and is still taking all the necessary measures to protect its property – external and internal security of trains, video surveillance and security of train parking places, train insurance etc. intentional destruction or damage of someone else’s property. According to the first part of Article 185 of the Criminal Law, the punishment for committing such crimes is imprisonment for a period of up to two years, temporary imprisonment, probation supervision, community service or a fine. At the same time, taking into account the increase in cases of damage to trains, in the opinion of the company, the mentioned punishment measures have not been a deterrent from committing such crimes, therefore AS “Pasažieru vilciens” has sent proposals to the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Justice to review the amount of penalties, increasing them or reclassifying them as crimes against in the country. The maximum punishment for an activity aimed at undermining the operation of the transport industry, as well as institutions or organizations with the aim of harming the Republic of Latvia, based on Article 89 of the Criminal Law, is deprivation of liberty for a period of five to twelve years, with or without confiscation of property.
“Our company has no objections to art in the urban environment if it is done in a controlled and coordinated way, but at the same time we will take the utmost intolerance against anyone who chooses to engage in vandalism instead of supporting art. Therefore, the message we want to convey to individual individuals who, driven by boredom, intend to try a newly purchased can of paint on the train – the consequences of such an action are not administrative, but criminal responsibility, basically a prison sentence, and we are currently working on making it even more severe, ” says Raitis Nešpors, chairman of the board of JSC “Pasažieru vilciens”.
In addition to the proposals sent to the legislator, AS “Pasažieru vilciens” plans to launch an informational and educational campaign in the near future, explaining to the public the impact of vandalism on train traffic and the responsibility established in regulatory acts for committing such crimes.
The fight against unauthorized labeling of foreign property is becoming more and more intense in many countries of the world, distinguishing high-quality legal works of art from the vast majority of aimless graffiti created as a result of unauthorized activity. Also, the existing penalties for such crimes are being reviewed. For example, in Germany, the fine for graffiti can be up to 7,000 euros, but in London and Singapore, in addition to an impressive fine, a prison sentence can also be imposed.
