Anti-Semitic Tube abuse 'not a one off', rail bosses say

A man has been arrested after a Jewish family were abused while travelling on the Northern Line.

An anti-Semitic attack on the Tube that went viral was "not a one off", according to the network's policing chief.

A Jewish family were subjected to a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse on the London Underground last Friday.

There has since been two more anti-Semitic attacks reported on the Transport for London (TfL) network.

Siwan Hayward, head of policing at TfL, said: "Hate crime is not tolerated on our network."

A video of Friday's attack was widely shared on social media and a man has been arrested and bailed on suspicion of committing a racially aggravated public order offence in connection with it.

TfL said there were 315 religiously motivated hate crimes on its services in 2018/19, compared to 290 the year before.

There has been a 9% increase in religiously motivated hate crimes on TfL services in 2018/19

"Sadly - and clearly this is a reflection of wider society - the horrific incident we saw on the Tube is not a one off," Ms Hayward said.

"In the last week we've also had two incidents reported on buses."

Ms Hayward said that, as with the incident on the Tube, staff were not aware of the "direct abuse" at the time.

She added: "What is encouraging is that we are seeing other customers stepping in and challenging that behaviour, supporting the victim or filming it - and that's really powerful."

A spokesperson from Community Security Trust (CST) said: "Sadly anti-Semitic hate crimes on public transport are a regular occurrence.

"On this occasion an arrest was possible because of the swift action of witnesses and we would encourage anyone who sees or experiences anti-Semitic hate crime to report it to police and CST."

TfL said rises in reporting were positive, as it alerted the network to the problem and allowed them to take action.