What is to be done about sexual harassment on London’s public transport?
Consultants Project Guardian, who work with police to minimise anti-social behaviour throughout the network, estimate that in 2013 up to 90 per cent of sexual harassment instances went unreported; and of anti-social behaviours that were reported, a quarter were of sexual harassment.
These are not negligible numbers – so we can’t just wait around for the increased station staff which Transport for London has promised for 2016.
In the meantime, a new service enables passengers to text ‘61016’ in order to gain help and to log a complaint against another passenger. In some ways it’s a positive initiative, but there are shortcomings: where there is no signal underground, passengers will have to wait until they reach the next station’s WiFi for the text message to get through – at which point they themselves can take the initiative by getting off the train and getting away from whoever’s hassling them.
Sorry to say, on this one I think the transport safety people have got some way to go yet. Sian Killean