Latest available data shows the number of crimes reported on the London Underground has risen in recent years, with a petition calling for women-only tube carriages gaining traction
The number of crimes reported on the London Underground has risen dramatically, latest data shows, amid calls for women-only tube carriages to be introduced by Transport for London (TfL).
UCL student Camille Brown, 21, has set up a petition calling for Sadiq Khan and TfL to protect women by introducing at least one women-only carriage on all tube lines. So far the petition has more than 9,600 signatures and will warrant a response from the government once it hits 10,000.
It has now emerged that, according to the latest data by the British Transport Police, violent incidents on the London Underground dramatically rose between October 2021 and October 2023. A question posed by Caroline Pidgeon, former leader of the Liberal Democrats in the London Assembly, to Mr Khan in February 2024 asked for a response from the Mayor of London in regards to the rising violence on the tube network.
READ MORE: Women-only tube carriages gets major update as TfL issues statement on new trainsREAD MORE: Petition for women-only tube carriages amid ‘growing issue’ nears 10,000 signatures
In his answer, published on February 27 last year, Mr Khan said: “The British Transport Police (BTP) data showed that there were 3,542 violent offences between 1 December 2022 – 30 November 2023. This was 20 per cent higher than the previous year (an additional 579 offences) and 75 per cent higher than 1 December 2020 – 30 November 21 (an additional 1,513).
“These increases are in line with the return of passenger numbers following the pandemic. Passenger numbers fell to records lows, as did transport crime levels, during the pandemic when lockdown restrictions were in place and many people were working from home. The comparison of recent crime levels with those during the pandemic is not a valid comparison. Overall, Transport for London’s (TfL’s) public transport crime trends largely reflect national crime trends in rising from the lower volumes recorded during the pandemic.”
He added: “TfL and the BTP have been actively promoting the importance of reporting crime, especially crimes that are underreported such as hate crime, sexual offences and harassment and work-related violence and aggression. This has contributed to an increase in recorded crime figures.”
The latest data may only lead to increased calls for TfL to introduce women-only tube carriages on the London Underground. In her petition Camille said “public harassment of women on the London Underground is a growing issue”, with the 21-year-old describing TfL’s current approach as “failing”.
Reported sexual offences have seen an annual increase of over 10% on tubes, trains and buses across the city, according to the BBC. In response to a Freedom of Information request, TfL disclosed that between February 2023 and January 2024, 2,671 sexual offences on the network were reported to the police.
TfL stated that this same period witnessed a surge in total passenger numbers as part of a post-pandemic recovery, and the rising number of reports was “anticipated” following an anti-harassment poster campaign. However, a survey conducted by the British Transport Police in 2023 indicated that over a third of women have been victims of sexual harassment or offences while commuting by train or tube.
In addition, a Girlguiding survey found that 56% of those aged between 11 and 21 don’t feel safe travelling alone on public transport, a figure that has risen by over 10% since last year.
Despite the ongoing campaign and data, TfL has confirmed that it has no plans to introduce women-only carriages. Siwan Hayward, Director of Security, Policing and Enforcement for TfL, told the Mirror: “Everyone should feel and be safe when travelling across the network, but isolating women is not the answer to tackling sexual offences.”
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“We do not support any proposal for female-only train carriages on TfL services, but instead are working closely with the police to ensure our capital’s transport network is a hostile place for offenders, including the use of intelligence-led policing operations to target offenders and hotspot locations.
“Women and girls should feel able to come forward and report any incident, confident that they will be taken seriously and that action will be taken. That’s why we have been working with the British Transport Police over many years to raise awareness of this issue, to help customers feel more empowered to report this behaviour.
“While we anticipated and welcome increased reporting, any incidence of sexual harassment is utterly unacceptable and we are working hard to stamp it out on our network. We encourage anyone who experiences or witnesses this behaviour to report it to the police or a member of staff, so that we can take action against offenders and ensure preventative measures are in place.”
You can sign the petition for women-only tube carriages here