Crime is down, says Brighton and Hove’s main train operator

By Tatiana Aversa Sanchez

Crime on the railways has fallen across the Southern Railway network, according to the latest figures from the British Transport Police.

Southern, which is the main company serving Brighton and Hove, said that crime fell more than 8 per cent in the year to April.

The number of crimes fell from 4,679 incidents in 2012-13 to 4,294 in 2013-14, a total of 385.

Southern’s head of revenue protection and security Stella Morris said: “Crime continues to fall every year on the Southern network which is a testament to the efforts of BTP, our own staff and the investment we have made in making our stations and trains much safer places to be.

“We are particularly pleased that anti-social crime has fallen by well over 14 per cent.

“This kind of crime is where we can make the biggest impact and the work of our Safer Travel Team with its 32 rail neighbourhood officers has contributed hugely to this reduction.”

Southern provides services in south London and between central London and the south coast, through East and West Sussex and Surrey and parts of Kent and Hampshire.

Crime figures for London and the South of England rose by 0.78 per cent, Southern said.

The company added that the chances of becoming a victim on the Southern network were slim.

With 169 million passenger journeys made on Southern each year, or 447,000 a day, a crime was committed once every 39,000 journeys.

Ms Morris added: “The reduction in crime is encouraging but we know there is still much work to do and we will continue to work closely with BTP on reducing crime on our network even further.”

Although it has fallen, railway crime has continued despite Southern’s live digital CCTV cameras directly linked to the control centre at Three Bridges.

The company also boasts more than 4,000 employees.