VANDALISM on Britain's railway network has shot up by more than 30 per cent in the past six years, it has been claimed.

Despite campaigns highlighting the dangers of trespassing on railways, official figures show that reports of have increased by a third since 2000.

The figures come a year after it emerged that the North-East was the worst hotspot for rail vandalism - and one of the worst for trespassing.

Darlington was picked out in particular, while Middlesbrough, Marton, Hartlepool, Billingham, Eaglescliffe and Thornaby were all named as trouble spots.

And, following a number of tragedies, The Northern Echo led a special No Messin' campaign by Network Rail to highlight the dangers and promote safe activities for youngsters.

Last night, the Conservative's shadow transport secretary, Chris Grayling, called for Government action to tackle the problem in the wake of new figures.

They show that the number of incidents in which police recorded damage to trains, tracks and depots had increased from 5,637 in 1999-2000 to 7,450 last year.

Mr Grayling said the Government had to get to grips with the problem - warning that vandalism could lead to disruptions to services and even derailments.

"These are very worrying figures, " said Mr Grayling.

"We've had promise after promise of action against anti-social behaviour of this kind over the years, but in the end nothing actually seems to happen and the number of incidents seems to rise and rise."

However, the Department of Transport - which produced the figures in response to questions from Mr Grayling - said numbers were not directly comparable, as the methods of recording vandalism had changed in 2002.

Rail minister Derek Twigg said a graffiti crackdown launched by British Transport Police in 2003 had doubled the number of vandals detected and led to a string of convictions - but had also resulted in a 75 per cent jump in offences reported.

He said reports had also been driven up by the Home Office's Name That Tag campaign, which offered a £500 reward to people who named prolific "taggers" as graffiti vandals are known.

Last night, Network Rail told The Northern Echo that rail vandalism was still a very real problem which caused it great concern.

A spokesman said last year's No Messin' campaign with the Northern Echo had been very successful with children - and was to be rolled out across the country this summer.