Drunken teen wreaks havoc on Reigate rail line
The rowdy 19-year-old ran amok in Reigate train station in the early hours of Sunday morning, smashing windows and the signal box.
Matt Wiggins, 24, was working in the Belfry Cars office at the time, and saw the drama unfold through the window.
He said: "I heard lots of shouting and a few minutes later, two police cars pulled up outside the office.
"I went outside to see what was going on and I saw about six policemen trying to arrest this guy.
"They said he had been running up and down the railway line with a big piece of wood.
"He was trying to wedge the wood on the line then jump over the barriers. He seemed wasted, I have no idea how he didn't get himself electrocuted."
A spokesman for Network Rail said: "Trespassing and vandalism causes significant disruption and costs the rail industry more than £250m per year – money which can't then be spent on improving services for passengers.
"The incident at Reigate was just one example of the type of thing we see across the whole network.
"The individual caused needless disress to the signal box operator and caused unnecessary damage by breaking windows in the signal box and station building.
"Due to the time of night the incident occurred, there was no disruption to train services.
"Obviously it's incredibly dangerous to do what this man did. He could have easily got hit by a train or fallen down on the tracks."
British Transport Police arrested a 19-year-old man from Coulsdon for being drunk and disorderly, for criminal damage, and trespassing on the railway.
The man was taken into custody for questioning and has been bailed until August 2 pending further enquiries.
Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to call British Transport Police free on 0800 40 50 40 quoting incident number 4 of 28/06/09.
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