The number of people trespassing on Croydon's railways has almost doubled in the past two years, according to new statistics.

Last year British Transport Police (BTP) recorded 66 trespass offences in Croydon, a increase of 32 from the previous year.

There were 34 trespass offences recorded in 2014 and 35 in 2013.

The spike in offences has prompted Croydon's transport inspector to warn young people that trespassing on railway tracks is “a deadly game” that should not be toyed with this summer.

Martin Grayton, Croydon’s BTP inspector, said: “It tends to be, particularly in the summer holidays, young people below the age of 18 that are usually boys.

“They climb on the tracks, sort of egging each other on as a bit of a dare.

“A lot of what we see either attending or later on CCTV tends to be thrill seekers or just those taking shortcuts.”

British Transport Police has recorded a rise in the number of trespassing offences London wide.

The force said there has been a 17 per cent increase over the summer.

Those caught trespassing could face a fine of up to £1,000 or a prison sentence.

PC Grayton said the biggest problem in Croydon is people running across tracks at train stations, adding: “What people don’t take into account is not all the trains are going to stop so they might think they have got a gap, but it is not that straight forward.

“It is a lot more dangerous than it looks, it is a deadly game – the trains can travel up to 125 miles per hour and take over a mile to stop so even if they see you they may not be able to stop in time.

“East Croydon is the worst in the Croydon area, and that is usually hopping between platforms.

“When it does happen it is a very traumatic thing for the train drivers, other than braking they have no ability to do anything else about it so it clearly affects them quite a lot.

“In the Croydon area a lot of the tracks are electrified so you have the danger of electrocution as well.”

In the last ten years, almost 170 people in the UK have died after trespassing on railways – with over half aged under 25.

PC Grayton said: “BTP do a lot of work around trespass prevention, it is not the most serious offence from a criminal point of view but it is the safety implications and everything that goes with it.

“We do quite a lot of work, along with network rail, looking at access points, measuring where offences take place and designing them out where possible.

“But obviously with stations and platforms and level crossings that is not so straight forward so where we have those we do a lot of work with signage and extra patrols.

“We also do school interventions so if we know there is a particular area that is suffering we will go and have a talk at the school to educate the students about just how dangerous it is.”

But trespassing is not the only issue facing BTP officers on a daily basis – people have been leaving rocks and branches on the tracks to obstruct oncoming trains.

Mr Grayton said obstructing the tracks has the potential to derail a train, adding: “Some of these are quite serious offences and people can actually get up to life in prison.

“People might do it as a laugh or do it just to see what happens when the train hits it at high speed, but it is obviously potentially serious with any damage it could cause to the train and the network.”