Do women feel safe on the night tube?

Keeping women safe from harassment and assault on public transport is a huge issue, and practically every woman will have a story to share about a time they felt unsafe while travelling home, day or night. Last year 75 per cent of women in London were victims of ‘violent harassment in public’, and there was even a suggestion of having women only carriages on the tube to increase safety. Now the night tube is available we asked women whether they’d feel safe using it, and what can be done to improve things in future.

Laura and Cathy

Laura: “I do actually because it’s much quicker. Time wise it probably halves the time where you could get attacked.”

Cathy: “I’m worried because I feel weird being in a tube, I feel more trapped, it’s the psychology of being underground.”

Laura: “But yeah, we’re feeling safer because we’re getting home a lot quicker basically.”

Rhi and Laura

Rhi: “We both said we felt fine about getting on the tube, but then it’s the getting off the other end which is the problem, we both said we’d ring each on the walk home. I can get to Brixton on the tube but then I have to get the bus to Streatham, so it’s more that that is affecting me.”

Laura: “It’s more the night bus which worries me.”

If they had the night tube throughout London would it be safer?

Laura: “We’d still probably have to get buses but it would be amazing to have the night tube properly. We haven’t really been given much information about numbers to call if anything goes wrong, stuff that you should normally have when travelling on public transport.”

Gillian

“Yes, it’s because it’s a route that I’m used to, I do it every single day, apart from it’s just extended to the night time, but I definitely feel safer.”

Kirsten

“I’ve never got a night bus before, I would probably say that the night tube has enabled me to use public transport going home from nights out. The majority of people will be getting on the night tube so I will feel safer.”

Savannah

“It’s going to be just as safe as the night bus. I feel safe on the night bus, there are cameras and there are people there, there’s an accessible person who is driving the night bus.”

Evelina

“I feel safe as there are a lot of people out here, there’s a lot of people of different ages so you feel quite safe. I haven’t taken a lot of night buses, I usually take the tube because it gets you to wherever you’re going more quickly. When I take the bus, like I did yesterday from Shoreditch, I had to walk through a park and if I could have taken the tube I would have gotten home so much quicker.”

Alex

“Well the night tube doesn’t really help me because I live in Kent but I feel safe as I’ve got these two protecting me.”

Kim and Shana

“I don’t think there’s any issue really. I don’t think it’s about safety as such, I just think it’s going to be more disgusting, there’s going to be way more drunks going home later. I’ve already seen people throwing up at 10pm so it’s just going to be worse. I don’t think it’s going to necessarily be a good thing even though it means I get home quicker.”

Kathy and Letoya

“We’ll be getting a night bus home because the night tube isn’t running on the Jubilee line yet. It will get us home quicker, and when the Jubilee line starts that will be a massive help. The Central and Victoria lines don’t really help us. I think it will be as equally as safe but it will get us home quicker so it’s a good idea. The problem with night buses is that they stop at every stop.”