According to Transport for London (TfL), nearly 40% of individuals utilizing London’s transportation system have reported feeling “worried,” with almost 10% saying they were discouraged from traveling due to distressing incidents they encountered.
Recent statistics on crime and antisocial behavior reveal that the most frequently mentioned troubling occurrences on the London Underground involve intoxicated passengers or those consuming alcohol. Meanwhile, on buses, the predominant concerns are related to antisocial behavior from youths and students, as well as threatening actions.
TfL expressed its dedication to collaborating with law enforcement to “prevent crime and mitigate offending, ensuring that every trip within London is both safe and perceived as safe.”
Concerns about overcrowding were voiced by 11% of Tube riders, while 13% of bus passengers were troubled by instances of pushing and shoving among travelers.
This information is derived from the latest TfL Customer Pulse survey conducted between January and June 2025, which revealed that 39% of respondents felt apprehensive while using public transport over the prior three months. Additionally, 9% of Londoners reported being completely or temporarily dissuaded from utilizing the public transport system due to a troubling incident they faced, with most opting for an alternative TfL transport method, whether temporarily or long-term.
According to TfL, 29% of reported “worrying incidents” took place on the London Underground, while 30% were on buses, reflecting the higher volume of passenger traffic on these systems. The most frequently reported distressing incidents on the Underground included drunken passengers or alcohol consumption (21%), threatening behavior or language, including altercations (11%), and issues related to overcrowding (11%).
On buses, the main concerns highlighted were youth-related antisocial behavior (15%), threatening actions and language from others (14%), and passengers pushing each other (13%).
The data also indicated a 5.5% rise in reports of violent crime compared to the previous year (January to June 2024). Violent offenses showed a fairly even distribution throughout the week, with 70.9% occurring Monday to Friday, and 29.1% over the weekend.
This year, crimes recorded on the London Underground were up by 0.9% compared to the previous year, while hate crimes saw a 4.6% decrease from 627 incidents last year to 598 this year. Theft continues to be the most prevalent crime, but robbery rates have dropped significantly by 18.6%—from 1,560 to 1,270 offenses—between January to June 2025 compared to the same timeframe last year.
TfL emphasized that substantial efforts are underway to address serious violence, sexual offenses and harassment, robbery, and hate crimes. The transport authority is actively working with police to facilitate reporting incidents, enabling timely responses.
A spokesperson noted that the increase in reported violent crime since 2016 is partly due to the proactive encouragement to report hate crimes, violence, and aggression against staff members, as well as sexual offenses.
During the first half of 2025, there were 907 reported sexual offenses across TfL services, an increase from 879 in the previous year. The most prevalent type of sexual offense reported was sexual assault, with the bus network seeing the largest increase in cases, totaling 382 offenses this year—an increase of 43 cases.
Approximately 30% of sexual offenses occurred in the afternoon between 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM.
Siwan Hayward, TfL’s Director of Security, Policing, and Enforcement, remarked that millions of journeys are completed daily on London’s public transport without incident, and the overall likelihood of witnessing or experiencing a crime remains low.
She added, “We have over 500 uniformed officers stationed throughout our network and they are continuing to collaborate closely with the Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police (BTP) to ensure public safety. The Met and BTP remain focused on combating high-harm offenses, which include all forms of violence against women and girls, serious violence, preventing weapons on the transport network, robbery, hate crimes, and work-related violence and aggression.”