RAILWAY police are winning a war to cut trespassing and deaths on the tracks in East Lancashire.

The number of deaths on the tracks is falling thanks to better fencing and an awareness programme, according to British Transport Police.

Speaking as the annual report for the British Transport Police was published today, Inspector Stephen Ingham from the transport police headquarters in Preston said: "We have been identifying particular danger spots along the rail lines in East Lancashire and we have targeted them along with Railtrack.

"They have undertaken to put 2m-high steel fences up at the danger spots and the numbers of deaths on the line have definitely dropped over the last 12 months.

"We are also continuing to educate the public about the dangers of walking on the tracks and so on and we have quite an extensive schools policy to try to raise awareness in young people.

"We try to prosecute as many people as possible in order to deter others from trespassing."

East Lancashire, as part of the North West area, enjoys the second highest transport crime detection rate in the country with just over 29 per cent of crimes cleared up between 1999 and 2000.

Luggage theft and pick-pocketing are also prevalent problems in East Lancashire although Inspector Ingham said the police were successful in catching many thieves.

He added: "Our record for violence and public disorder problems is not as bad as other parts of the country and vehicle crime targeting cars left on rail car parks is also relatively low.

"In East Lancashire we have had only around six offences committed in the last nine months."

Commenting on the report, Chief Constable David Williams said: "On crime we are doing significantly better than the national average."