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 think sometimes people are asking if it got moved here by mnhq because it was reported for mentioning someone's sex or something. I still have zero comprehension of what is meant to go where. I wouldn't mind but they have been being moved!

Well, if MNHQ move everything here that references sex then this'll be the board where the honest posts go then, I guess. I say we embrace that.

The purges never quite go the way they're intended, do they?

Also, when I reported my harassment to the BTP the officer told me that it's pretty common and wanking on trains is just something that some men do for kicks. He was quite matter of fact about it. This was probably 8 years ago so not something that they have just become aware of recently!

Well with any luck attitudes will change with a woman in charge. Hope she does make it a priority. I've saved the number for the BTP in my phone now

@TiddyAndFletch

They must be very well-off if they can afford to make a 12 hour train journey for no reason. A 5 hour journey recently cost me £180.

One day travel card on the tube.

Have a season ticket for work.

Get a one day return and just go back and forth on the same line.

Also it’s quite common for various people to ride the tube for the day to keep safe, when it’s cold or wet especially. Some are rough sleepers, some people I’ve known that were elderly and/or lonely did similar. Only costs a couple of quid I think if you come out in the same zone you went in at. Could easily do that for hours.

@DoucheCanoe

My Autistic teen is a train spotter who will (and has) just jumped on and off trains or sat through a return journey just because he enjoys doing it.

I worry about him being mugged, or targeted for his hobby or just because he's socially awkward. It never even occurred to me that people might think he's a sexual deviant!

I expect your autistic teen has met mine while trainspotting!

@FloralBunting

And can we stop asking why a poster has chosen to post in this section? It's quite evident that the feminists who understand our oppression is related to our sex have been relegated to this board while the naice feminists discuss karaoke so if you want to start threads about stuff there do it yourself. Some of understand that being able to reference sex matters, to coin a phrase. Let the lib fems have the other board and just carry on FWRing. It's not like trolls will leave us alone wherever we go, so let's just get on with it.

Hear, hear! Well said!

Only costs a couple of quid I think if you come out in the same zone you went in at. Could easily do that for hours.

No, you can stay only within the same zone. The Circle Line would be ideal is it goes only to Zone 1 stations.

It’s great that the BTP seem to have someone proactive in charge who understands the problem.

A few years ago I was groped on the tube by a man travelling with his wife and child. He was standing behind me and started touching my bum. I tried to move away but it was busy and I couldn’t get far enough away. Luckily I was due to get off at the next stop so that put an end to it. When I got to my then boyfriend and his friends I told them what had happened and the response was largely ‘why didn’t you yell or slap him?’. They didn’t understand that I just couldn’t. It was as much as I could do to walk away. My brain just kept telling me not to make a scene in front of the child which is crazy because this bloke clearly wasn’t bothered. And that I’m fat and ugly so I wouldn’t be believed. I dread to think about the kind of thing that’s happened to other women on the train.

My tube used have have a guard. Always in the second last or last carriage.

Anyone who wanted to feel more secure would go in that carriage. Could be women, lone teen boys after a night out, elderly people.

That's much better imo because more than one group feels and is potentially vulnerable to others. And it doesn't imply that anyone should be there because it's all mixed- certainly there was never any impression of that.

In rush hour then it didn't work like that it was more in the evenings when the tube was quieter.

Cost money of course so when the new tubes came in they didn't need them for the doors any more and that was the end of it.

I was groped and fondled on a UK train.

I could not escape the perpetrator as the train was rammed. Nobody did anything to help and some people infact turned away. Eventually enough passengers alighted at a station so that I could slip into a new carriage but I spent the rest of my several hour journey in fear of him following me.

I have never travelled by train since, I am too afraid.

Additionally I doubt the skills of BTP, I’ve reported 2 aggressive beggars on my regular journey for nearly 18 months pre COVID. Nothing was ever done, not in the same level of crime of course but if they can stop that happening at the same time, on the same route nearly every day, will these sexual predators really face any justice.
It'll vary by division of course, like with all forces but I've always found the local BTP to be OK. It helps to know where they are based and what the trigger words are for a priority response. Anything involving a hate crime or county lines ends up top of the pile.

GWR just said that they weren't responsible for what passengers did on their trains and it wasn't the guard's job to ensure a safe environment for passengers and that they had other tasks to carry out. I stopped using that service as I no longer felt safe travelling alone.
While I (as a guard, not for GWR) don't really have much in the way of statutory powers (I can chuck someone off for breach of byelaws but I have no powers to enforce criminal law), I know that by making myself visible I can discourage antisocial behaviour. Broken windows theory of policing - if I deal with the little things such as fare evasion, feet on seats, smoking in the bog etc., the yobs won't see an open goal for more serious stuff. It's funny how when I enter a carriage, face masks suddenly get pulled up from chins and onto faces, if this happens I spend more time in that carriage so that people aren't tempted to drop them down again, this is despite me having no powers to enforce face mask rules. With that in mind, I reckon that creeps are far less likely to act if I (complete with bodycam) am there to witness it.

My tube used have have a guard. Always in the second last or last carriage.
London Underground progressively removed guards between 1984 and 2000. Even when they were there, like with Merseyrail they would have stayed at the back rather than maintaining a visible presence. I make sure that I'm visible as much as possible and don't let a few drunks on a race day intimidate me out of looking after vulnerable passengers.

On the tube on my line everyone knew where the guard would be and on tubes later at night many would actively go there if they wanted a bit of safety.

Also that carriage then had a fair few people which is safer than being in a carriage on your own. And the guard of course who had direct Comms with the driver who could call ahead and have people ready to meet the train and at the right carriage.

I never had anything iffy happen when in the guards carriage. And it's there for anyone not just a certain group and it wasn't advertised as safe or anything so none of this why didn't you go in the safe carriage.

I'm not sure why it's a rubbish idea.

Oh sorry missed the last bit!

'. I make sure that I'm visible as much as possible and don't let a few drunks on a race day intimidate me out of looking after vulnerable passengers.'

Different trains I suppose are different.

You're not supposed to change carriages while train is moving on our tube (dangerous) and most people would find that I dunno. A difficult thing to overcome.

'GWR just said that they weren't responsible for what passengers did on their trains and it wasn't the guard's job to ensure a safe environment for passengers and that they had other tasks to carry out. I stopped using that service as I no longer felt safe travelling alone.'

I also think that's a shit response.

It's a real jobsworth response.

I assume they have communication with the driver/ a central control place/ a mobile phone?

I assume they don't really mean that. If eg there was a child getting beaten up by some men or a woman being seriously assaulted that they wouldn't do anything at all. Just walk past.

And yet that's what they've said. Awful.

Anyone got a link to that gwr safety thing where they say that?

I assume they don't really mean that. If eg there was a child getting beaten up by some men or a woman being seriously assaulted that they wouldn't do anything at all. Just walk past.

My gripe was that the guards on that route always walk through in the daytime after each stop. But in the evenings they just sit in the guard’s cabin at the end of the train. In the evenings the trains on that particular route had a high percentage of groups of young drunk males and rowdy behaviour. I argued that if the guards continued to walk through the train in the evenings their presence would probably help to keep solo female travellers safer. They said the guard had other tasks than just checking tickets and that I should have gone and knocked on the guard’s door and they would have assisted me. In hindsight I wish I had but you don’t always react in the most logical way when stressed do you?

I assume they don't really mean that. If eg there was a child getting beaten up by some men or a woman being seriously assaulted that they wouldn't do anything at all. Just walk past.
I suspect that the guard was sat in the back cab reading a newspaper. Plenty of guards don't bother going through evening trains.

I haven't been able to find that statement online and I asked on here but no luck.

So I'm going to assume they didn't make that statement recently but if anyone has a link etc then happy to change my mind and discuss!

I mentioned this briefly in my previous name, but as a young teen (13) I was quite seriously sexually assaulted on the underground on a school trip.

I tried moving away, but he just moved with me. I couldn't speak out, I was so ashamed and just hoped none of my school mates could see his hand/arm down my culottes.

He looked like a normal bloke. Smiled at me when I looked at his face in fear whilst moving. Can still remember his face, clothes.

Couldn't imagine telling anyone. Didn't cross my mind. Never told a soul in real life. How many others did he do that to? How brazen do you have to be to do that on a packed train?

Loads

I've had so much dodgy behaviour on the tube.

I want the guards back. Money though.

@invisiblesuit

I was on an overnight train once (in Switzerland), and a young man came into my sleeper carriage, wanting to lie down next to me and have sex. I found and reported to the guard, who wouldn't do anything about it. In my opinion a man who does that should be thrown off the train, not just left to get on with it. The train was otherwise empty.

Sleeper trains in the UK let you book shared compartment by gender identity, not sex. Imagine being shut overnight in a tiny compartment with a male stranger.

With that in mind, I reckon that creeps are far less likely to act if I (complete with bodycam) am there to witness it.

Yes this is definitely why the visibility of guards is so important.