Reported crime on the London Underground, buses and trains is on the rise, according to the latest statistics released by Transport for London (TfL) – but that is only reflecting rises more generally, Mark Rowe notes.
A half-yearly report to the TfL Customer Service and Operational Performance Panel states that public transport crime trends largely reflect London-wide crime trends. Also relevant: the rise follows lower volumes of recorded crime during the pandemic; hence the rising trend in overall public transport crime reflects the rising trend of passengers using TfL services. Reported crime fell from spring 2020 purely because people were out less during lockdowns, and were less liable to be robbed or assaulted; crimes against people while travelling dipped more noticeably, because travel during lockdowns on buses, trains and trams fell drastically.
As for recovery of ridership, in a recent quarterly performance report, covering June to September, TfL reported that ‘passenger journeys are now 89 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, up from 85 per cent at the end of 2022/23’.
For the months April to September, the crime rate per million passenger journeys is overall 18.6, compared to the 13.7 for the same months last year. While crimes are up 56pc, passenger numbers are down 11pc. As for the Elizabeth Line, opened last year and running east to west through central London, its crime rate per million passenger journeys is noticeably lower, at 8.9.
The stats to the panel cover London Overground and Underground trains, south London trams, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), Elizabeth Line, Cable Car over the Thames at Greenwich and buses. On the buses, the crime rate per million passenger journeys for 2023 is 9.7 – the same as in 2022. Reported theft, violence and public disorder, and robbery are ‘higher than expected’, TfL says (see also the British Transport Police website). The transport operator does stress that it ‘actively encourages the reporting of all sexual offences and sexual harassment’. Is an explanation that recorded sexual crimes have risen because more offences are reported (not necessarily the same thing as more crime actually happening). On the buses, not so: some 383 ‘bus-related’ sexual offences were recorded in the months April to September 2023, compared with 430 for the same period the year before. The largest single category of crime on the buses is theft of personal property, at 4145 offences roughly half of the total for April to September, compared with 3752 for the same months in 2022.
As for violence on the buses, peak times include 3pm to 6pm, Monday to Friday, which the authorities say is ‘linked to younger passengers’ and spread throughout London. More serious acts of violence follow a similar weekday, 3pm to 6pm, concentration and, also occur very late at night and in the early hours at weekends. Female victims in their teens and twenties are more commonly reporting harassment offences to the police; while males are more likely to be the victims of more serious violence with injury.
As with crime more generally, actual incidents may be one thing, and the public’s perception another. TfL quotes a customer survey of the summer, when about one in three (32pc) said that they felt worried on public transport in the past three months and 7pc of Londoners overall were completely or temporarily deterred from using public transport due to a worrying incident (a slight rise, according to TfL). Worries cited for both buses and the Tube are around drunken passengers or passengers drinking alcohol. On the buses, also cited is youth (or after school-related) anti-social behaviour, and over-crowding; while cited particularly on the Underground are threatening behaviour and language of others, and seeing someone begging (people walking through carriages asking for money being a common experience for travellers).
On the Underground, most, 61pc of thefts happened on trains compared with 39pc at stations. Stations where most thefts happened were, understandably, among the most busy: Kings Cross St Pancras, Leicester Square and Oxford Circus. More robberies meanwhile happened at a station (59pc) than on-train (39pc).
Comment
At the rail workers’ union RMT, general secretary Mick Lynch said: “These soaring crime rates come as no surprise to tube workers that are on the frontline every day in this increasingly hostile environment.
“RMT has been warning for many years that instead of an agenda of austerity and constant cutbacks we need decent staffing levels and investment to ensure a safe and secure transport network for London.”
Photo by Mark Rowe; buses outside Euston station.
