Thousands back London Underground change inspired by Japan and Mexico | UK | News
Thousands of people applied to Transportation London Implementing a change in the Metro that is already implemented in other countries. Tokyo and Mexico City have already implemented measures to keep women safe on public transport.
Nearly 12,000 people have signed a petition calling for women-only tube carriages to be introduced on the London Underground. Camille, a 21-year-old student who grew up in London, I started the petition because he thinks “public harassment of women on the London Underground is a growing problem.”
Her petition added: “TfL’s approach is failing; we see it all the time, we say it, but it’s still not resolved. That’s why I’m calling on Sadiq Khan to introduce women-only carriages.”
She was inspired by her own experiences and those of her female friends on the London Underground.
Camille says that when she was 13 and in her school uniform on the Circle Line, she was asked to spend the day with a man. She added: “It was not uncommon for girls at my school to arrive in tears because they had experienced or witnessed a traumatic event in the Underground.”
Her petition calls on TfL to dedicate certain carriages to women only, with clear signs on both trains and platforms to direct women to dedicated areas. This has already been seen in other cities around the world.
In Tokyo, women-only train cars are available during rush hour. They are also open to boys of primary school age and younger, as well as disabled passengers. Fighting gender-based violence, Mexico City also put women-only subway cars into service in 2002.
Reported sexual offenses on tubes, trains and buses across the capital have increased by more than 10% year on year, according to the report. BBC. 2023 questionnaire Research by the British Transport Police has suggested that more than a third of women have been victims of sexual harassment or crime while commuting by train or tube.
Despite this, Transport for London stated that it believes that separating passengers by gender on the tube is not the solution.
Siwan Hayward, TfL’s Director of Safety, Policing and Enforcement, said: “Everyone should feel safe and secure when traveling on the network, but isolating women is not the solution to tackling sexual crime.
“We do not support the proposal for women-only train carriages on TfL services, instead we are working closely with the police to ensure our capital’s transport network is a hostile place for criminals, including the use of intelligence-led police operations to target criminals and hotspot locations.
“Women and girls should be able to come forward and report any incident with confidence that it will be taken seriously and appropriate action will be taken.
“That’s why we’ve been working with British Transport Police for many years to raise awareness of this issue and help customers feel more empowered to report this behaviour.
“While we have expected and welcomed an increase in reports, any instance of sexual harassment is completely unacceptable and we are working hard to eliminate it across our network.
“We would encourage anyone who experiences or witnesses this behavior to report it to the police or a member of staff so we can take action.”
