Violence towards train staff sees 1,400 police call-outs in five years

British Transport Police have been called to more than 1,400 instances of violence towards train staff in the last five years.

The statistics obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats under freedom of information legislation show 1,438 incidents in police records where violent behaviour was directed towards a member of rail staff - an average of more than five instances a week.

The majority of incidents occurred at stations across Scotland, with 760 recorded "off train".

A further 678 reports involved accusations of violent behaviour from passengers on trains.

The statistics show most incidents were reported on Saturdays.

Police received 287 calls in the past five years to attend violent incidents on Saturdays - almost 20% of the total number of call-outs.

Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Mike Rumbles said: "Having a wild one at the end of the week is no excuse for intimidation and violence.

"Hardworking staff should not expect to have to deal with railway users behaving badly on such a regular basis.

"SNP ministers and rail bosses need to review the safeguards that are currently in place to identify where improvements can be made."

A spokesman for the British Transport Police said: "It is disgraceful that anyone thinks it is acceptable to target rail staff with violent behaviour, quite frankly we will not tolerate it.

"We work very closely with ScotRail, and other rail operators, to tackle offences and will explore all investigative avenues to identify and prosecute offenders.

"We have welcomed previous announcements by ScotRail and other train operators to equip their staff with body-worn video.

"While violence against staff is rare, body-worn video evidence is a valuable tool to identify those responsible and clearly demonstrate the unacceptable behaviour staff may experience."

A spokesman for ScotRail said the safety of staff and passengers is its "number one priority".

He added: "We will continue to work closely with the British Transport Police to clamp down on unacceptable behaviour and prosecute offenders."

A spokesman for Transport Scotland said rail workers and passengers have "the absolute right to go about their business without the fear of verbal or physical assault".

He added: "Our officials play a leading role in the co-ordinated industry-wide 'violence against transport workers' group, which highlights unacceptable behaviour and delivers awareness campaigns like the one by BTP, ScotRail and trade unions in the lead up to Christmas, which will be launched by the Cabinet Secretary."