On Tuesday 27 October, Cubic Transportation Systems handed recommendations on how to improve safety on public transport to number 10 Downing Street.

Kevin Maslin, Cubic’s Senior Vice President and Managing Director, was joined by Jo Field OBE from Women in Transport, Jamie Hassall from the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) and some of Cubic’s field service engineers, who work on these networks every day.

The recommendations were formed from a summit in September hosted by Cubic at the London Transport Museum. Representatives from 26 organisations including train operators, ITS UK, police, unions, policymakers and frontline staff came together to confront violence, fear and fragmented data on Britain’s transport networks.

The figures showed that action is necessary. TfL records around 10,000 incidents of workplace violence and aggression a year, and nearly half of fare evasion incidents carry a linked incident of violence or aggression against staff. British Transport Police reported a rise of around 42 percent in recorded public order offences last year, with under-reporting still a serious problem. As Kevin Maslin, Cubic’s Senior Vice President and Managing Director, told summit attendees, “Hope is not a safety strategy.”

Five roundtables kept returning to the same themes: fragmented data, funding, responsible use of technology and AI, and women’s safety.

Cubic is now submitting the summit’s recommendations to government, including the Department for Transport, the Home Office and Great British Railways. The purpose is to move the industry from fragmented, incremental responses to a coordinated, sector-wide approach. We are calling for:

• Government leadership and accountability: a standalone offence of assaulting a transport worker; a DfT-led national safety strategy within 12 months, with a named ministerial owner; and a review of how data and intelligence are shared across the sector.
• Consistent operator action: stronger, more consistent approaches to escalation and reporting, physical safety, staff support and passenger education.
• Sustained sector-wide change: a common framework that turns these recommendations into measurable action, clear ownership and lasting improvements in safety across public transport.

We have used evidence from this summit in our response to the Transport Committee’s Safer Journeys for Women and Girls inquiry. Further regional sessions are planned, building towards one that includes legislators and ministers directly.

Read the full summit report on the Cubic website.

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