London Underground thefts rise by 83% in a year

Crime on the Tube has risen by more than 50% in a year, including a substantial increase in robberies and thefts.

According to the latest data from Transport for London (TfL), offences are up 30% across all services.

On the Underground there was an 83% increase in thefts while robberies more than doubled, even though passenger numbers fell.

TfL said it was working closely with police to address current concerns.

The latest figures cover crimes recorded in the six months between April and September this year.

The number of offences on all TfL services, including the Elizabeth line, London buses and London Overground, rose from 17,160 last year to 22,294 this year.

Bus crime rose by 6%, and the report says levels of reported theft and violence are "higher than expected".

With bus passenger numbers rising slightly, the crime rate per million journeys stayed about the same.

However, on the Tube the 56% rise in crime occurred despite a 11% fall in passengers - leading the crime rate to rise sharply from 13.7 to 18.6 per million journeys.

About 40% of all offences committed on London transport happened on the Tube, with King's Cross St Pancras, Leicester Square and Oxford Circus the worst stations for theft.

The most offences were reported on the Northern line, followed by the Jubilee and Piccadilly lines.

Crime and public safety will be one of the major issues at next year's mayoral election, and Sadiq Khan's opponents have voiced criticism about the figures.

Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall said: "Sadiq Khan is responsible for TfL and keeping Londoners safe, but his weak leadership has let crime skyrocket."

She said if she won May's mayoral election she would invest £200m in policing and in installing CCTV across the Tube network.

Sarah Olney, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond, said: "Londoners should be able to feel safe on their public transport, yet these shocking figures tell a different story."

She called on the mayor and the government to stop their "endless bickering" and tackle the "surge in crime".

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT rail union, called for more investment in the Underground network to tackle rising crime.

He added: "These soaring crime rates come as no surprise to Tube workers who are on the frontline every day in this increasingly hostile environment."

A spokesperson for Mr Khan said: "Everyone should feel safe on London's transport network and it is the mayor's priority to ensure the transport network remains a safe and low-crime environment."

They added the figures "reflect national trends which are rising due to the lower volumes recorded during the pandemic".

Siwan Hayward, TfL's director of security, policing and enforcement, said: "The safety of our customers and staff is our top priority and, working closely with the police, we have hundreds of police officers and our own enforcement staff patrolling the network at all times of the day to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour, alongside operations to target offenders and hotspot locations."

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