‘I was followed carriage to carriage by a burping, farting man': This is life as a woman on the Tube

Independent

4 days ago

Show me a woman who's lived in (or simply visited) London and I guarantee you'll find an example of her being harassed on public transport – by a man.
It is, depressingly, par for the course for most of us – and I say this as a Londoner who's lived in the capital my whole life. The main culprit? Men on London Underground, where packed train carriages are easy fodder for wannabe gropers.
But there are bad men on buses, too. There's no way I would ever allow my teenage daughter to take the night bus home like I did, not when I know – firsthand – just how dangerous it can be for women.
Our stories are often anecdotal, because we know for a fact that women often don't report what has happened to them – after all, there are few areas of crime where the British justice system is so particularly ill-equipped to advocate for women as rape and sexual assault. Just this week, for instance, a watchdog warned that the handling of rape cases at an early stage by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is 'not good enough', risks a poor service to victims – and said that 'urgent improvements' are needed.
When I ask female friends who live in London whether they've ever had any negative encounters on the Tube, almost every one of them has a story. 'I got followed by a man moving from carriage to carriage on the East London line late at night,' one friend tells me. 'Each time he followed me, he sat right next to me – until I ran off the train last minute before the doors closed at Wapping. I didn't report it, though.'
When I ask her why she didn't, she says: 'There was nobody at the station to report it to. Wapping doesn't have anyone visible around after about 9pm. Plus, I was far too busy making sure I got somewhere – safe and fast – to think about stopping to tell anyone.
'The police wouldn't have been able to do anything, either, as I didn't know if he got off at Wapping or carried on to another stop – it would have been a wild goose chase for them and a waste of time.'
'I've been rubbed up against on the Tube too many times to count,' another friend reveals, saying that the experiences were 'gross' – while another recounts how she was followed home by a man at a deserted train platform at Catford and had to run.
The Labour MP – who's no stranger to being targeted (she's one of a group of female MPs who has been repeatedly targeted with abuse from anti-abortion activists, stalkers and misogynists; and has even had to have a panic button installed inside her home) – said she was now planning to report the incident to the police.
In a post on X, Creasy said: 'If you were one of the passengers on the victoria line just now who intervened to stop a man hassling me thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please get in touch with my office if you are prepared to be a witness as maybe the police might listen to you about him now!'
Stella speaks for all of us. I've had far too many unsavoury experiences on public transport – from taking a friend on the Tube for her first ever visit to London, aged 19, when a man sat next to us and made obscene gestures with his tongue and fingers; to being followed last month, carriage to carriage on the Elizabeth Line, by a burping and farting man on the 8am commute to work.
I moved away as it became apparent that he wasn't well – that's what I assumed given he was cackling, releasing deafening guttural burps and constantly passing wind (I was actually worried he might vomit) – but as soon as he clocked I was moving away in fear and disgust, the challenge was apparently on.
He started laughing even more loudly and following me as I weaved my way through crowds of commuters to put some distance between us. Other passengers clocked what was happening, but nobody stepped in – perhaps no surprise, when you consider that BTP data shows that while more than a third of women have been sexually harassed on train and Tube journeys, only one in five people who have witnessed incidents of sexual harassment reported it to police.
I just had to keep moving, faster and faster – and then waited until the last minute and jumped off the train as the doors were about to close, so that he couldn't follow me anymore.
There are so many more stories: the man who came up to talk to me while I was travelling in an empty carriage home from visiting a friend at night; who saw I had my headphones on and did what too many men do to women when they're clearly wanting to be left alone: he gestured at me to take my headphones off so we could chat.
When I refused to do so – shaking my head to signal clearly that I didn't want to chat, that I was quite content minding my own business, actually – he got aggressive. They always do.
A damning report released last August revealed violent attacks towards women more than doubled in the two years previous, with more than a third of women were subjected to sexual harassment or sexual offences while commuting via train or Tube, according to data published by the British Transport Police Authority. Figures also revealed a surge from 7,561 in 2021 to 11,357 in 2023 of crimes against women and girls.
I don't have the answers as to why so many men harass women on public transport – whether it's opportunist, a 'misinterpretation', or 'accidental' – but I suspect the depressing truth is simply 'because they can'.