TfL’s new campaign against abuse of transport staff highlights prison sentences

Around half of the 200 incidents of abuse and attacks on transport staff reported each week across London start with a dispute over fare evasion, according to new figures from Transport for London (TfL).

Although attacks on staff are declining, there’s been a rise in general abuse of staff, and TfL is starting a new awareness campaign warning that abusive behavior can lead to jail time. Much like some of the recent rioters have found themselves shocked when sent to prison for a year or more, TfL’s new campaign aims to remind people of just how long they can be held at His Majesty’s pleasure if they attack transport staff.

TfL says there has been an increase in all incidents of work-related violence and aggression over the past year, with higher numbers of verbal abuse, threats, hate and aggression being reported. In 2023/24 there were 10,493 reports of work-related violence and aggression, compared to 9,989 in 2022/23, an increase of five percent.

While total incidents have increased, the number of physical incidents reported recently has decreased.

From 1st April to 22nd June 2024, 197 physical incidents were reported by directly employed TfL staff, a 20 percent reduction compared to the same period last year, when there were 248 reported incidents. TfL says that it hopes to continue seeing this downward trend through the widespread adoption of body worn video (BWV) cameras, deployment of Transport Support Enforcement Officers and rollout of conflict management training.

Earlier this year, TfL made body-worn cameras part of its essential kit for frontline customer-facing staff. Recent research showed that the risk of assaults on staff can be almost halved when wearing a BWV camera, and the footage can provide vital evidence to the police if an assault does occur, resulting in better outcomes when offenders go to court.

In addition, a new advertising campaign is starting today, and some of the examples of incidents across the campaign include:

• A young man who violently threatened and assaulted a female Customer Service Assistant during rush hour at King’s Cross St. Pancras station in June 2023. He was sentenced to 38 weeks in prison
• A teenager who spat at and racially abused a Customer Service Assistant at Balham station during rush hour in May 2023. She was arrested and sentenced to 3 weeks in prison
• A 59-year-old man who verbally and physically assaulted a bus driver in Cromwell bus station in 2022. He was arrested and later sentenced to 20 months in prison

The campaign to reduce assaults on transport staff comes as TfL is also ramping up fare evasion prevention.

Learning that around half of assaults on staff come from dealing with fare evasion may also discourage the so-called “armchair experts” from claiming that staff don’t care about fare evaders. When it typically takes at least two police officers to restrain an offender (often more), to expect a customer service assistant at the gateline to single-handedly stop a fare evader without being attacked seems a dangerous position to promote.

It is much better to leave it to the trained police who regularly support enforcement teams at stations to catch the fare evaders in action.