Transport Scotland report recommends changes to enhance women’s safety on transit

Women and girls are being forced to adapt their own behaviour and change their travel habits in order to feel safe on public transport, according to new research commissioned by Transport Scotland.

Transport Scotland’s report has made 10 recommendations to help women feel safer on its public transport services, including:

• Introducing systems to regularly monitor, upgrade and repair lighting and communications systems for all transport services
• Developing credible and accessible information and guidance on reporting incidents that do occur
• Exploring the feasibility of increasing the presence and visibility of staff across the transport network
• A comprehensive review of staff training on both their own safety and how to support and protect passengers.

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Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth said: “During our research, women and girls told us they shoulder significant responsibility for adapting their own behaviour to try to ‘be’ and ‘feel’ safe on public transport. They are often in a constant state of vigilance, particularly at night time, and as a result end up changing their plans – only travelling at certain points of the day or not using public transport altogether. This is simply not acceptable in 21^st century Scotland. We will now work with transport operators and stakeholders to carefully consider these recommendations and how we can implement them quickly and effectively, to ensure our transport network is safer and more secure for all who use it.”

British Transport Police (BTP) Superintendent, Arlene Wilson, said: “Women’s safety on the rail network is a key priority for BTP. The findings from this research will support our aim of ensuring every woman and girl can travel on the rail network without fear of harassment or intimidation. We will use these findings to work with our partners to ensure that sexual harassment will not be tolerated on the network and we will always take reports of this behaviour seriously. Our officers continue to patrol the rail network to catch offenders and reassure passengers.”

Kate Wallace, CEO of Victim Support Scotland (VSS), said: “Victim Support Scotland welcomes this focus on increasing women and girls’ safety on public transport. While incidents are still too high, we welcome steps being taken to improve reporting and for complaints to be taken seriously. VSS is here to help anyone affected by crime and encourage people affected to get support through our website and webchat at victimsupport.scot and our National Support Centre on 0800 160 1985.”