Perpetrators caught

Wagons sprayed: ÖBB demands 500,000 euros

It usually takes one to three hours to remove the graffiti.

(Bild: Michael Fritscher)

Graffiti has long since ceased to be a trivial offense. However, the illegal "works of art" are not losing their popularity among sprayers. Together with the police and state-of-the-art technology, ÖBB is increasingly succeeding in catching sprayers before they commit a crime. Two graffiti sprayers in Villach left their works of art on trains for 15 years. Now they have to answer for it.

Last year, a sprayer duo in Villach was found to have caused graffiti damage amounting to a record half a million euros. Thanks to state-of-the-art technology and the storage of every single "work of art" in a database, ÖBB, together with the police, was able to assign over 420 cases to the perpetrators over a period of 15 years. Since 2022, the amount of damage, which does not only relate to the damage to property, has for the first time also included the costs for the breakdown or downtime of the trains during the usually very costly cleaning operations.

Die Reinigungsmittel werden aufgetragen und danach abgebürstet.

(Bild: Michael Fritscher)

Die Reinigung der Züge wird mithilfe biologisch abbaubaren Reinigungsmitteln durchgeführt.

(Bild: Michael Fritscher)

In order to catch perpetrators - such as those from Villach - before they commit their crime, ÖBB has been increasingly relying on new technical aids in recent years. For example, video surveillance towers have been increasingly deployed on sidings, which report a silent alarm in the event of unauthorized entry in order to catch the perpetrator before or during the crime.

"Another feature that makes it easier to identify offenders is often the "tags", i.e. the artists' abbreviations under their works, which usually remain the same."

Daniel Pinka, Pressesprecher ÖBB

Costs and cleaning
The trains are cleaned with biodegradable cleaning agents. The agent is applied and then brushed off. The removal time of graffiti depends on the one hand on the size, nature and structure of the sprayed surface and the outside temperature. On the other hand, the paints and substances used by the sprayers also play a role. On average, cleaning takes between one and three hours. 

However, the cleaning costs for removing particularly large graffiti can run into five figures.

This is why sprayed wagons are often on the road
As cleaned wagons cannot be put into service for some time, this could lead to a lack of space for passengers. For this reason, sprayed wagons are often in circulation, as otherwise trains would be canceled.