A pilot study evaluating the effectiveness of preventing railway suicides by mid-track fencing, which restrict easy access to high-speed train tracks

•Means restriction by, for example, physical barriers is promising for suicide prevention.•Suicides at high-speed tracks at stations were the main cause of death.•Mid-track fencing restricted easy access to high-speed tracks at a station.•Mid-track fencing reduced the number of suicide at a station by 62.5%.•Certain suicides may have been transferred to nearby stations without mid-track fencing.