Orthophoto-based identification of railway trespassing sites: spatiotemporal analysis and hazard assessment

Pedestrians enter railway infrastructure at locations where access is prohibited for various reasons, such as taking shortcuts, attempting vandalism, theft or suicide. This behaviour poses a safety concern for both trespassers and railway operations. In Czechia, publicly available orthophotos were used to identify and analyse locations exhibiting evidence of railway trespassing. A total of 1,118 such sites were identified, mostly in built-up areas and farther from authorized crossing points. Historical orthophotos revealed that 727 sites (65%) were already present in the 2003–2005 period, indicating their long-term persistence. Some of the remaining sites (35%) emerged in association with urban and industrial development in the surrounding area or the removal of authorized crossing points. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based on infrastructure-related criteria, the trespassing sites were ranked according to their train–person collision hazard. The results showed that orthophotos complement other methods used to detect railway trespassing and can help identify locations that may not be captured by accident data alone. At the most hazardous locations, monitoring and preventive measures can be considered to reduce the likelihood of serious train–person incidents.