Good news for crime on the London Underground

Recently British Transport Police (BTP) reported that Crime on Transport for London’s transport system had fallen by 11% compared to the year before and on the underground it fell by 15% which is great news!

Yesterday they released figures which identify the worst stations and lines for crime, which I think will be particularly helpful for those of us who will be visiting London over the next few months.

The good news though is that as a proportion of the number of people who travel on the underground these crime figures are very low.  Highlighting the worst lines and stations does though focus our minds on the need to be careful when using public transport, because on bustling stations and packed trains opportunities for theft will always be present.  You should be particularly careful with bags, mobiles, laptops, wallets, cash, credit cards and watches.

Here are some of the key points I’ve grabbed from various media sources and BTP, but I must say that the figures are a lot lower than I had imagined.

Stations:

Kings Cross St Pancras 283 Thefts (serves 80 million passengers a year)

Victoria Station 268 Thefts

Oxford Circus 255 Thefts

Lines:

Theft was down on all lines quite substantially except for the Docklands Light Railway that showed a 26% increase on the previous year and on the Metropolitan which showed a tiny 1% increase

*Underground lines which had the most thefts as a proportion of the number of passengers travelling on them in 2013