HASSL Joins Rail Delivery Group Event on Violence Against Women and Girls

Today, HASSL was invited to join the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) industry-wide "Safer Journeys" conference on tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) across the UK’s transport network.

The event brought together rail industry leaders, government officials, campaigners, and British Transport Police to address the urgent issue of harassment and violence on public transport. New RDG research shows that 9 in 10 people believe VAWG is a major societal issue and that 85% believe the rail industry has a key role to play in addressing it.

At the conference, the rail industry set out a series of safety commitments, including:

• Increasing the number of body-worn cameras on trains.
• Introducing mandatory and consistent staff training on recognising and responding to harassment.
• Creating dedicated passenger groups to co-design safer stations and carriages.
• Standardising reporting systems across all train operators.
• Appointing a safety representative on every train operator board to ensure incidents are reviewed at the highest level.

Our presence at this event matters because collaboration is central to HASSL’s mission. By joining the conversation, we helped put systemic solutions on the agenda - reinforcing that harassment on public transport is not just an individual problem, but one that requires collective action, from industry reform to bystander intervention. 

For HASSL, this event was a so valuable. It gave us the opportunity to speak directly to senior leaders in the rail industry, share our insights on systemic approaches to safety, and highlight the importance of shifting the burden off passengers and onto institutions.

It also opened the door to partnership opportunities we’re now working on - collaborations that could help shape future initiatives, reporting tools, and public education efforts across the transport sector. These connections are crucial for embedding HASSL’s mission into infrastructure and policy at a national level.

Watch the Behind the Scenes here: 

This milestone supports Stage 2 of our five-stage plan: building partnerships and influencing institutions so safety is not just encouraged but embedded into policy, infrastructure, and culture. Working alongside the rail industry ensures that harassment prevention becomes a shared societal obligation - exactly what HASSL was founded to achieve.