A TRAIN conductor has spoken of how he deals with abuse from passengers.

It comes as Northern urges members of the public to treat everyone working on the railway with respect as it cracks down on verbal and physical abuse.

While the overwhelming majority of people who travel with the train operator are polite and respectful, a very small minority have resorted to shouting, spitting, and attacking members of staff in recent years.

Andrew Wade, a 59-year-old conductor based in Skipton, has worked for Northern for 12 years.

“People who refuse to pay often become verbally abusive when they see you approach in a uniform. They will do anything to try and get out of paying,” he said.

“Whenever someone is letting off steam, I try and defuse the situation by sitting down with them and talking to them as an equal. But there are some situations where that isn’t possible.

“I have never been physically assaulted, but there have been three occasions when I have lost sleep after being threatened. It does take its toll.

“I always try to process what happened and think about whether I could have handled it differently and if I could prevent it from happening again in the future.

“But it’s reassuring to know that the trains are covered by CCTV and the body-worn cameras, which are very good and available for everyone to wear. I do think they act as a deterrent to anyone who is being anti-social.”

Northern said it will not tolerate verbal and physical abuse towards staff and will take action against anyone who threatens their employees’ safety.

It says the chance of perpetrators being caught on camera is now much higher after it added a further 600 new CCTV cameras to the more than 1,000 that monitor its station estate.

The operator installed 7,000 HD CCTV cameras on board its fleet of trains and invested £1.7m in the roll-out of more than 1,000 extra body-worn camera kits, taking the total number now in operation to 1,300.

British Transport Police has access to all the footage and can use it in criminal prosecutions.

Kerry Peters, regional director for Northern, said: “We welcome millions of customers on-board our trains every year and the overwhelming majority are polite, considerate and respectful of others.

"Unfortunately, given the numbers involved, our conductors do also encounter people who are somewhat less respectful of them and the safety critical role they have on-board – and that is unacceptable.”