POLICE are planning an offensive to tackle the problems caused by young vandals on a railway line at Stockton.

Officers will be using converted off-road motorbikes to ride alongside the tracks while a police helicopter will be scrambled to help them catch troublemakers.

British Transport Police (BTP) will use old trains to travel on the line looking for vandals, so they can stop and surprise them by jumping out from the carriages - something commercial locomotives are unable to do.

They are also targeting 70,000 homes in Stockton with a safety message in a public information leaflet, which is due to be delivered later this month.

The campaign comes after a section of track between Norton and Bowesfield was identified as the most hazardous in the North of England.

Young people have been putting obstacles such as bricks and metal bars on the tracks, and throwing stones at carriages. Last month, a bicycle was thrown in front a train.

"We feel it is necessary to let people in Stockton know what is happening because these people are making the railways very dangerous," said Sergeant Nigel Ashworth, of the Middlesbrough office of the BTP.

"We want people to talk to their children to impress upon them the dangers they are putting themselves and other people in.

"If a train was derailed it would not just affect those who did it, but the train driver and the staff, the passengers and the people who live near the railway, not to mention the effect it would have on the emergency services."

In the run up to the half- term holidays this month, school liaison officers will be visiting primary and secondary schools in the area to talk to pupils, showing them hard-hitting videos to make them realise the potential fallout from foolish pranks.

During the Whitsun holidays, high-profile patrols on the railway will be increased with officers using motorbikes and helicopters to make sure offenders cannot escape across fields and though housing estates.

Sgt Ashworth said: "We are determined to make children realise that railways are very dangerous places and should not be used as a play- ground."