Safety fears remain for some using public transport

A police and crime commissioner (PCC) has said "people still don't feel safe" on a region's public transport system.

Northumbria PCC Susan Dungworth said although reports of anti-social behaviour have fallen by 10%, some, including women and people with disabilities, were uneasy when it came to travelling.

Between April 2025 and March, more than 1,000 incidents were reported to Northumbria Police across the public transport network.

To tackle this, the Safer Transport Northumbria Partnership has been launched to bring together Northumbria Police, the PCC, North East Mayor Kim McGuinness, Metro operator Nexus and local bus companies.

The Labour PCC said while the partnership has been in place since 2021, the new strategy had formalised it.

"People still don't feel safe when they're using public transport and it is particularly women, it's people with a disability, it's people of an ethnic minority and actually age as well," Dungworth said.

The formalised partnership will allow different bodies to share information and data more readily, Dungworth said, helping police and operators to identify recurring problems and concerns.

"We need to make sure each and every agency understands exactly what's happening in their area," she said.

Solutions include training bus drivers to be active bystanders, more ticket gates and more obvious ways to report incidents via text.

"It's about people knowing they've got a way of reporting if they feel frightened," Dungworth said.

"It's about everybody taking responsibility as well.

"You know, this isn't a problem that any one agency can deal with on their own, it's about everybody stepping up and actually acknowledging that at times people will feel threatened, will feel harassed, will feel frightened."

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