02.11.16
Rail safety campaign urges passengers to report any suspicious behaviour
Passengers should keep an eye out for suspicious items or activity around British stations and trains, a major new safety campaign says.
Posters for the ‘See it. Say it. Sorted’ campaign were unveiled at stations in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester yesterday.
Passengers are urged to report anything unusual either in person to rail staff or by texting British Transport Police (BTP) on 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40.
Rail minister Paul Maynard, who launched the campaign at London Waterloo, said: “We want to send a clear message to anyone threatening the security of the rail network that there are thousands of pairs of eyes and ears ready to report any potential threat to the BTP and rail staff who are ready to respond to these reports.”
Maynard noted that the recent discovery of an improvised explosive at North Greenwich Tube station showed “just how important it is to be vigilant”.
The bomb was discovered after a passenger found a bag and gave it a train driver, who discovered it contained wires. The station was evacuated and the bomb was destroyed in a controlled explosion.
Gary Cooper, director of operations at the Rail Delivery Group, commented: “Safety and security are paramount. Our customers, who are at the heart of everything we do, rightly expect this.
“With rail staff, BTP, and customers all working together to identify any activity that doesn’t look normal, we can help ensure millions of customers’ journeys and all freight deliveries are safely and securely completed every day so that Britain’s railway remains the safest in Europe.”
Alun Thomas, temporary assistant chief constable at BTP, urged passengers not to be afraid to report anything “that feels out of place”, because police rely on information from the public to keep the rail network safe.
“It could be someone avoiding rail staff or police, leaving a bag on the railway, checking out security arrangements like CCTV or trying to access staff-only areas,” he added.
“If it doesn’t feel right, we want to hear from you. Let us decide if what you have seen or what you know is important. We will check the information thoroughly.”
‘See it. Say it. Sorted’ is due to be rolled out across the entire rail network in England, Scotland and Wales.
The 61016 text service, which allows passengers to discreetly report non-emergency incidents to BTP by text, was introduced in 2013.
Since then, the service has received almost 50,000 text messages from UK rail users and police have responded to more than 8,000 incidents and recorded just over 4,100 crimes.
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