Viral video prompts renewed calls for safety measures on public transport

Following a series of recent incidents that involve women being targeted and harassed while trying to get home, social media users are demanding more intervention from staff at stations.

‘If you act up, I’ll follow you.’

These are the distressing words of a man in a viral video which made the rounds on social media this weekend. Late at night, he had climbed across train tracks to harass the woman filming, despite her repeatedly asking him to leave her alone.

It was later disclosed that she had to exit the underground due to a lack of police and TFL staff presence during the incident, in addition to no intervention from onlookers.

‘This man is displaying high potential of being a sexual offender, and this video as much as it’s hard to say looks like the prelude to a stranger/murder or r*pe scenario,’ wrote an X user.

@screenshothq NO MEANS NO Women should NOT have to fear being alone at night. Yasmine posted this video to TikTok to raise awareness after she tried to politely decline this man’s advancements but he then became aggressive towards her. The British Transport Police and the Police are now looking into this incident and encouraging public transport users to use their contact numbers in the case of an incident. #brucegrove #tfl #btp #transportforlondon #londontravels #londontravelling #tottenham ♬ drowning (slowed + reverb) – Vague003

‘That’s why it’s so upsetting to watch because we ALL know what this looks like.’

Prompting widespread calls for improved safety measures on public transport, it comes on the back of a recent Office for National Statistics survey which found that half of women aged 16 to 34 had experienced at least one form of harassment.

Especially prevalent in stations, 58 per cent of participants also claimed to feel unsafe using public transport after dark and the number of assaults on railways has doubled since 2015.

This is according to YouGov, which revealed that 97 per cent of women have experienced unwanted sexual advances on tubes and buses, while only 4 per cent of crimes are reported.