Rail security to be reviewed after train stabbings, says minister

Transport Minister Heidi Alexander said rail safety will be reviewed following a mass stabbing incident on a train in England.

A man has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder following a stabbing attack on a Doncaster-London service on Saturday night.

Alexander told the BBC the government would “review security arrangements” and respond “swiftly and proportionately”.

But he didn’t think airport screening technology was “the right solution for stations in the UK”.

Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood is expected to make a statement to MPs about the attack in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon.

Questions about passenger safety on the UK rail network were raised after a black British citizen attacked passengers with a knife while boarding a train at Peterborough station.

11 people were treated in hospital, including a train staff member whose “condition was said to be critical but stable”.

Anthony Williams, 32, of Peterborough, has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of causing actual bodily harm and one count of possession of a bladed instrument, British Transport Police (BTP) said in a statement on Monday morning.

Alexander told BBC Breakfast that BTP officers will increase the number of visible patrols at mainline stations in the coming days, “because I understand people will want to feel safe after what has happened”.

“Fortunately, incidents like this are very, very rare on the public transport network,” he added.

He said Britain’s rail network was a “low crime environment”, with only 27 crimes committed for every million passenger journeys.

Asked what steps the Government would take to improve security on trains, he said: “We are investing in improved CCTV in stations and the Home Office will soon launch a consultation on more facial recognition technology that could also be implemented in stations.”

Asked about baggage scanners similar to those used in some major railway stations overseas, he said: “I don’t think this type of airport scanning technology is the right solution for stations in the UK at the moment.”

Former British Transport Police Chief Andy Trotter told BBC Breakfast that Saturday’s attack showed “people’s real concerns about being stuck with a criminal or someone causing disorder”.

“Hopefully this will result in a wider review of security, the need for more British Transport Police, the need for more security from the railway companies themselves.”

When asked about reports that BTP had conducted a training exercise based on a scenario similar to what happened a few months ago, he said: “I know they conducted a very similar exercise, because a few weeks before 7/7 we had also conducted an exercise similar to the outcome on that day.

“It makes it work much better throughout the day; you learn from the experience of these exercises what goes well and what doesn’t.

“The police and other emergency services also look immediately after each incident to make sure you have learned your lesson.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp told BBC Radio 4’s Today program he was calling for “a dramatic increase in the use of stop and search to remove knives from the streets and potentially prevent attacks like the one seen on the train”.

Asked why the suspect in Saturday’s stabbing should have been stopped and searched before boarding the train, even though only his age, gender and ethnicity were known, he said “it depends on whether there’s an indication of suspicion.”

“But in hotspot areas where crime is high, they should actually be stopped and searched without suspicion,” he added.

When asked if he said the man should be stopped and searched just based on the color of his skin, he said: “Absolutely not, I’m definitely not saying that.”

The Conservative government has described the laws on knife crime in England and Wales in 2024 as “already among the toughest laws in the world”.

Asked why the same laws were no longer good enough, he said: “We need to go further with tougher knife crime laws, more stop and searches and the use of technology such as live facial recognition to identify wanted criminals and dangerous people so they can be arrested.”

Senior Reform UK politician Zia Yusuf said on Sunday he did not want to see increased security at train stations.

It would create “enormous friction” in the lives of law-abiding people “as a result of the actions of a small minority”, he said on the BBC’s program with Laura Kuenssberg, broadcast on Sunday.

He argued that the use of stop and search powers should be significantly increased “until saturation is reached”, which he said would remove lethal weapons from circulation.

There is no single publication of knife crime statistics in the UK, but police in England and Wales recorded 51,527 crimes in both countries by June 2025. according to latest figuresPublished by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, these figures show that knife crimes have decreased by 5 percent compared to the same period last year and by 7 percent compared to five years ago. Murders committed with knives have also fallen by nearly a fifth in the last year to 196 crimes, compared to 239 crimes last year.