Government pledges safer travel for women and girls on public transport
Heidi Alexander highlights government mission to reduce violence against women and girls as West Midlands Trains move into public ownership
Tackling the issue of women’s safety on public transport is a ‘mission of the government’ according to the transport secretary.
Heidi Alexander made the comment earlier this week on a visit to Wolverhampton Railway Station where she marked the transfer of West Midlands Trains coming into public ownership.
London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway services will be joining Great British Railways – a new unified railway system – from today (1 February).
Ms Alexander said the changes will lead to more punctual services with less cancellations, as well as delivering up to £150m of savings per year.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service pressed Ms Alexander about whether the changes will see improvements for safety of women and girls using public transport.
Ms Alexander did not confirm whether or not the government will roll out a national reporting scheme for abuse on transport services.
She said: “Everyone who uses the public transport network should be safe and feel safe.
“That’s why this government works very closely with the British Transport Police who have a big priority about tackling violence against women and girls.
“I know that there has been some great examples in other parts of the country where other passengers have encouraged people to report incidents.
“We’ve got the mission as a government to halve violence against women and girls. People using trains and the wider public transport network not only need to be safe but they need to feel safe as well.”
Speaking about the transfer into public ownership, Ms Alexander added: “We’ve already transferred a number of train operating companies into public ownership. We have announced we are freezing rail fares for the first time in 30 years.
“When you think that fares have gone up with inflation over the last couple of years this is a really significant intervention because we know how important an affordable train system is for the public.
“We also know publicly operated train companies are performing better when it comes to punctuality and cancellations.
“I don’t want anybody standing on a platform in the West Midlands waiting for a train that never turns up. I want people to have good, reliable, comfortable and affordable transport options.
“Of course we’ve got the added benefit of saving up to £150m a year because we won’t be paying that management fee to private companies who were, let’s be honest, running pretty appalling services over recent years.”