‘The violence is off the scale’: staff and passengers at risk as assaults on UK trains soar to record high

Cases of abuse, spitting, head-butting and sexual harassment, have spiked as transport police numbers have dwindled

When a train was halted outside Exeter St Davids station on Monday, rail staff leapt to one conclusion: there had been a violent incident on board.

“Someone will have kicked off,” one staff member said. “It happens all the time. My boss got head-butted recently.”