Suspicious behaviour on train - what are you actually meant to do about it???

[WhyBeHappyWhenYouCouldBeNormal]

Yesterday evening I got on the tube in London, and not long after we set off a man started pacing the length of the carriage shouting quite urgently that "Jesus wants to save your soul, Jesus loves you, don't you understand? I am prone to destructive behaviour but Jesus turned me, he loves you etc ladies and gentlemen my name is Darren and I love Jesus he wants to save you.. etc. etc." you could kind of ignore it until he started bending down and shouting in people's faces. He was wearing a back pack and I can't lie that I was slightly anxious about his intentions - I got off and changed carriages at the next stop as did many other people over the journey.

The reason I'm posting is that whenever you are travelling there are lots of announcements on the tannoy about reporting any suspicious behaviour but I'm not sure how you could actually go about doing that? There are never any staff on the tube platforms or trains - the only way of getting in touch is if you stop the train right, which seems a bit extreme and has a penalty for improper use.

What should we have done? What are you actually meant to do if you suspect suspicious behaviour on the tube?

Get off at the next station and report it there. That's what I would have done anyway. There is usually someone on the platform, I think.

Though in this case I think I would have just thought he was one of London's weird and wonderful people (and the poor man probably needs support too). But I would undoubtedly felt intimidated had he shouted in my face so I would have changed carriages.

Never anyone on the platform unless it's a really busy station - so I would have to march back overground to the ticket office to find someone - by which time the tube would be far far away.

Yes, those of us on the tube were obviously all fairly confident it was one of the weird and wonderful londoners and not someone violent but I went away thinking 'what if'. Had I found out later that there was an incident and that I could have prevented it...

On the trains there is a number you can text for the transport police, I wonder if there should be little phones on the platform for a direct link - or a special button on the tube that doesn't stop the train, but alerts the driver to call staff to board the carriage at the next station or so.

Or maybe they should tell us in the tannoy what we are meant to do.

Most platforms have an information point where you press a button to speak to someone for ' information' or 'emergency'. If I was worried I would have got off and informed someone via the information point. Although a friend did pull the emergency cord when she was verbally threatened by a man on a train and the driver said she had done the right thing.