Crime on Sussex’s trains is among the highest in the country, new figures show.

Statistics revealed by British Transport Police showed the county’s two major train operators feature in the top five in the country for total crime.

Southeastern saw 1,143 crimes across its network in 2013 – the second highest – while Southern saw 864 crimes on its network, which was the fourth highest.

The operator with the most crime in the country was First Great Western with 1,179 incidents in 2013.

 


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But none of Sussex’s operators featured in the top five for crimes per passenger.

The most common crimes recorded were theft of luggage (32%), violence (15%), cars and cycle crime (14%), public disorder (9%), and theft of railway property (9%).

A spokesman for Southeastern said: “The safety and security of our passengers is our top priority, and the reality is that our trains and stations are among the safest places in the community.

“Southeastern has been working closely with the BTP to target offenders and remove them from our network. We have 24/7 CCTV coverage with officers monitoring the network round the clock and we’ve increased the number of railway enforcement officers who patrol the railway to enhance security.

“In the past 18 months we’ve launched an extra security measure – which we call ‘Eyewitness’, which allows passengers to report any instances of antisocial behaviour directly with officers in the railway control centre who can respond or deploy the emergency services.

“All these measures are working, with a reduction in the number of offences on our network. But we remain vigilant, and we’ll continue to do everything we can to provide a safe and secure environment for our passengers.”

A spokesman for Southern Rail said: “Crime across the Southern network continues to fall, with total crime over the past 12 months down six per cent on the previous year.

“Violence against the person – either staff or members of the public – has fallen 19 per cent in the last year, and theft of passenger property is 15 per cent down on last year.

“We work closely with the British Transport Police (BTP) in tracking any trends and putting plans in place to further drive down crime. In addition to our 32 Rail Neighbourhood Officers (RNOs), who operate across our services and stations, and our award-winning Eyewitness scheme, we also fund four additional BTP officers to work alongside our RNOs and increase visibility on our network.”