Railway staff face record rise in violent attacks

The RMT railworkers' union, is calling for urgent action to curb attacks on railway staff. The union was responding to the latest annual railway safety report from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which shows that that assaults on staff rose to record levels during the period 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001 - up by 22%, from 379 to 462.

The union says train operating companies should do far more to combat these attacks. They say passenger rage has escalated since railway privatisation, which raised high hopes, which the companies have failed to deliver.

"We are extremely concerned about these figures and believe more resources should be allocated to curbing staff assaults as a matter of urgency," said acting general secretary Vernon Hince. "What is perhaps even more worrying is that these figures represent just the tip of the iceberg. Only serious assaults - ie those rendering the person attacked unfit to return to work for more than two days - are reportable to the HSE. The huge and growing number of minor assaults that take place every day, not to mention the burgeoning instances of verbal assaults, are not even reflected in these figures."