Women-only tube carriages gets major update as TfL issues statement on new trains

Following a campaign to introduce women-only tube carriages on the London Underground , Transport for London (TfL) has issued a major update. Camille Brown, a 21-year-old university student at UCL, initiated a petition urging Sadiq Khan and TfL to safeguard women by implementing at least one women-only carriage on all tube lines. At the time of writing, the petition has garnered over 9,500 signatures , and with 10,000 signatures, it will warrant a response from the government. Despite the ongoing campaign and data, TfL has confirmed that it has no plans to introduce women-only carriages. Siwan Hayward, Director of Security, Policing and Enforcement for TfL, told the Mirror : "Everyone should feel and be safe when travelling across the network, but isolating women is not the answer to tackling sexual offences. "We do not support any proposal for female-only train carriages on TfL services, but instead are working closely with the police to ensure our capital’s transport network is a hostile place for offenders, including the use of intelligence-led policing operations to target offenders and hotspot locations. "Women and girls should feel able to come forward and report any incident, confident that they will be taken seriously and that action will be taken. That's why we have been working with the British Transport Police over many years to raise awareness of this issue, to help customers feel more empowered to report this behaviour. "While we anticipated and welcome increased reporting, any incidence of sexual harassment is utterly unacceptable and we are working hard to stamp it out on our network. "We encourage anyone who experiences or witnesses this behaviour to report it to the police or a member of staff, so that we can take action against offenders and ensure preventative measures are in place." For more stories like this subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Weekly Gulp , for a curated roundup of trending stories, poignant interviews, and viral lifestyle picks from The Mirror's Audience U35 team delivered straight to your inbox. Reported sexual offences have seen an annual increase of over 10% on tubes, trains and buses across the city, according to the BBC . In response to a Freedom of Information request, TfL disclosed that between February 2023 and January 2024, 2,671 sexual offences on the network were reported to the police . TfL stated that this same period witnessed a surge in total passenger numbers as part of a post-pandemic recovery, and the rising number of reports was "anticipated" following an anti-harassment poster campaign. However, a survey conducted by the British Transport Police in 2023 indicated that over a third of women have been victims of sexual harassment or offences while commuting by train or tube. In addition, a Girlguiding survey found that 56% of those aged between 11 and 21 don't feel safe travelling alone on public transport, a figure that has risen by over 10% since last year. "Public harassment of women on the London Underground is a growing issue, and TFL's approach is failing - we always see it, we do say it, but it's still not sorted," Camille, who grew up in London, wrote in her petition. You can sign the petition for women-only tube carriages here