Sexual predators are boarding trains with the sole intention of targeting female passengers (Sunday Times)

[TheHandmadeTails]

Can anyone do a share token? I don’t think I saw a thread on this. I’ve c&p’d some paras.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/get-on-board-to-help-snare-the-train-perverts-passengers-told-bwgdv283f

“There are people who go from A to B, get a return train and come back immediately,” she said. “That’s not normal. We also know that there are people who go on the network and are on it for a long time. If you’re on a journey for 12 hours, what are you doing?”

This is Lucy D’Orsi, new chief constable of British Transport Police.

She has also ordered a review of the laws to ensure that offenders can be successfully prosecuted for actions that have been going unpunished. This includes the sending of obscene images to strangers in the same carriage through AirDrop and Bluetooth technology.

I would love to have women only carriages on trains and tube..

The problem is that if there's no train manager to police this, those carriages might just make it easier for predators to target women by isolating them in one place. It's years since I've been on the tube so correct me if I'm wrong, but they only have a driver as far as I know, and many trains outside London are now run without managers/conductors/guards.

wow, it speaks volumes when some posters are defending men’s rights and minimising threats to women, and those are the same posters who pop up in other contexts…it’s almost like this gives away the fact that their main interest is in … defending men’s rights and minimising threats to women.

Why do these comments keep getting deleted? Let the misogyny stay for all to read and absorb.
I’m sick of the mods doing rape apologists inadvertent (?) favours.

Any males straying in by accident or on purpose are pushed back or have to get off at the next station.

Is there an official to evict intruding men, or does this rely on there being enough women in the carriage who are confident to do this themselves?

Many years ago, there used to be women-only carriages in the UK - but that was in the days when trains generally were much longer than they are now. If it's a two or three carriage train, that approach isn't going to be feasible.

The problem is that the rail networks in the UK won't spend money on train managers and longer trains to facilitate this.

Or have you misread the word trains?

Golden.

@PumpkinSpiceWoman

"If you’re on a journey for 12 hours, what are you doing?"

Possibly trying to get from A to B: a journey of a few hundred miles with several changes and delays and rail replacement buses? I can see the need for preventing assaults, improving reporting of the assaults that slip through the net... keeping guards on trains is only common sense.

But to suggest that the length of a person's journey signals their intentions is a tad bizarre.

I don't think that they're on about people travelling from Aberdeen to Plymouth.

@TiddyAndFletch

I would love to have women only carriages on trains and tube..

The problem is that if there's no train manager to police this, those carriages might just make it easier for predators to target women by isolating them in one place. It's years since I've been on the tube so correct me if I'm wrong, but they only have a driver as far as I know, and many trains outside London are now run without managers/conductors/guards.

The new Underground trains on the Met/District/H&C/Circle do have through gangways now so you're no longer trapped in one carriage.

The new Underground trains on the Met/District/H&C/Circle do have through gangways now so you're no longer trapped in one carriage.

Oh, that's good news. It must be about 10 years since I was last in London and the carriages were isolated from each other back then.

If any of you ever witness anything like this, please please report it immediately. BTP can be covertly texted on 61016.

How ironic that we are now considering women only train carriages but losing women only toilets, changing rooms, hospital wards, refuges, prisons… perhaps after many women have suffered the trauma of sexual assaults we’ll get them back again. The lack of foresight about single sex spaces is unfortunate. Ok unfortunate might be an understatement, perhaps also it is intentional on the part of some and wilful ignorance on the part of others.

This really isn't new. Even people who look like unremarkable daily commuters who behave ok can do intimidating things on shortish journeys when they've had a few drinks. One person, young heavy-set guy, trapped me in to a window seat by propping his leg up on the aisle seat next to me and not moving when I wanted to exit without me climbing or shoving it off. Just because he could.

@TiddyAndFletch

The new Underground trains on the Met/District/H&C/Circle do have through gangways now so you're no longer trapped in one carriage.

Oh, that's good news. It must be about 10 years since I was last in London and the carriages were isolated from each other back then.

Full width gangways too, it's open throughout en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_S7_and_S8_Stock

With women only carriages though- you "chose" whether to make yourself safe or not- like walking home/ taking a shortcut- all the things that we get blamed for.
I would rather all spaces were safe with zero tolerance.

@Ormally

This really isn't new. Even people who look like unremarkable daily commuters who behave ok can do intimidating things on shortish journeys when they've had a few drinks. One person, young heavy-set guy, trapped me in to a window seat by propping his leg up on the aisle seat next to me and not moving when I wanted to exit without me climbing or shoving it off. Just because he could.

Remember a few years ago when there was an outcry about groping on the Underground? BTP started running plain clothes operations: www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/the-secrets-of-men-who-grope-women-on-public-transport---and-how/

@grafittiartist

With women only carriages though- you "chose" whether to make yourself safe or not- like walking home/ taking a shortcut- all the things that we get blamed for. I would rather all spaces were safe with zero tolerance.

Obviously, that's an ideal but we have to live safely in the world as it is, not the world as we would like it to be.

@Comingoutfighting

Tiddy in Delhi and other cities these carriages are used by women who say they would not travel if they didn’t exist. In some places the carriages are entirely for women, and in others the section in the middle is reserved. Any males straying in by accident or on purpose are pushed back or have to get off at the next station. The feeling of peace , safety and solidarity is strong.

I am all for that in principle but I have four reservations:

1 It puts the onus on women - not on men - to police their behaviour and limits their freedom of movement.

2 It can send the message that women who don't use areas reserved for women are willing to be assaulted - after all, if they weren't, they would use female-only spaces.

3 How is anyone to stop men who identify as women from using those spaces?

4 It is a great target for those who want to enact violence against women.

Tiddy- agree.
Sad situation isn't it.

3 How is anyone to stop men who identify as women from using those spaces?

Exactly. Also if there was a campaign for women only carriages there’d be pressure to make it open to non-binary people, trans women etc. It’s pointless.

Stop the men's bad behaviour, don't expect the women to change theirs

Don't know. Just seems this board is focused on trans issues. Predatory men would be better on the feminism chat?

No idea why my post was deleted if trans people are considered men and therefore by nature predatory? Seems censoring of debate. But hey.

@TheHandmadeTails

3 How is anyone to stop men who identify as women from using those spaces?

Exactly. Also if there was a campaign for women only carriages there’d be pressure to make it open to non-binary people, trans women etc. It’s pointless.

I dont like womens only carriages, as it promotes exclusion rather than targeting any person whose behaviour is inappropriate and indeed against the law.

Why is this in sex and gender not chat?