‘The violence is off the scale’: staff and passengers at risk as assaults on UK trains soar to record high
Source: The Guardian ·
Cases of abuse, spitting, head-butting and sexual harassment, have spiked as transport police numbers have dwindledWhen a train was halted outside Exeter St Davids station on Monday, rail staff leapt to one conclusion: there had been a violent incident on board.“Someone will have kicked off,” one staff member said. “It happens all the time. My boss got head-butted recently.” Continue reading...
From the source
When a train was halted outside Exeter St Davids station on Monday, rail staff leapt to one conclusion: there had been a violent incident on board. “Someone will have kicked off,” one staff member said. “It happens all the time. My boss got head-butted recently.” On this occasion, they were wrong – but their assumption told a tale. Figures released late last month showed the number of reported assaults on Great Britain’s railways had risen by a fifth, to a record high of almost 25,000 incidents in a year. Staff in particular have felt increasingly under threat. While the total numbers reported by the Office of Rail and Road in 2025-26 covered threats, verbal abuse, and contact that might not have resulted in any injury, they included nearly 2,500 physical assaults on workers – an average of about seven every day. Their unions said the numbers were horrendous, but unsurprising: the RMT and TSSA unions have campaigned for more staffed stations and policing, after the number of British…