Rail security to be reviewed after train stabbings, says minister

There will be a review of rail security in the UK following a mass stabbing on a train, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has said.

A man has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder after the knife attack on a Doncaster to London service on Saturday night.

Alexander told the BBC the government would “review security arrangements” and respond “swiftly and in a proportionate way”.

But she did not think airport scanning technology “is the right solution for stations in the UK”.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to make a statement about the attack to MPs in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon.

Questions about passenger safety on the UK’s rail network have been raised after a a black British national, who boarded a train at Peterborough station, attacked passengers with a knife.

Eleven people were treated in hospital including a member of train staff who is said to be in a “critical but stable condition”.

Anthony Williams, 32, from Peterborough has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of actual bodily harm and one count of possession of a bladed article, British Transport Police (BTP) said on Monday morning.

Alexander told BBC Breakfast that BTP officers would increase visible patrols at mainline stations over the coming days “because I do understand that people will want to feel reassured following what happened”.

“Thankfully incidents like this on the public transport network are very, very rare,” she added.

She said the rail network in the UK was a “low crime environment” and for every one million passenger journeys only 27 crimes were committed.

Asked what steps the government would take to improve security on trains, she said: “We are investing in improved CCTV in stations and the Home Office will soon be launching a consultation on more facial recognition technology which could be deployed in stations as well.”

Asked about luggage scanners similar to those used in some major train stations abroad she said: “At the moment that type of airport scanning technology I don’t think is the right solution for stations in the UK.”

Andy Trotter, former British Transport Police Chief Constable told BBC Breakfast Saturday’s attack illustrates “people’s real concerns about being trapped with an offender or with someone causing disorder”.

“I hope this results in a broader review of security, the need for more British Transport Police, the need for more security from the rail companies themselves.”

Asked about reports that BTP had carried out a training exercise a few months ago based on a scenario similar to what happened he said: “I know they did have a very similar exercise, as in the few weeks before 7/7 we had an exercise similar to the outcome on that day as well.

“It does make it work a lot better on the day, you learn from experience from those exercises what went well what didn’t go well.

“The police and the other emergency services also look at every event immediately afterwards to make sure you do learn lessons.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was calling for “a dramatic increase in the use of stop and search to take knives off the streets and potentially prevent attacks like the one was saw on the train”.

When asked for what reason the suspect in Saturday’s stabbing should have been stopped and searched before boarding the train when only his age, gender and ethnicity was known, he said “it would depend if there was an indication of suspicion”.

“But in high crime hot-spot areas there should actually be stop and search undertaken without suspicion,” he added.

Asked if he was suggesting the man should have been stopped and searched purely based on the colour of his skin he said “categorically not I am absolutely not saying that”.

The Conservative government in 2024 described laws on knife crime in England and Wales as “already among the toughest in the world”.

Challenged on why these same laws were no longer good enough, he said: “We need to go further with tougher knife crime laws, with more stop and search, and the use of technology like live facial recognition to identify wanted criminals and dangerous people so they can be arrested.”

Senior Reform UK politician Zia Yusuf on Sunday said he would not like to see increased security at train stations.

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme it would impose “enormous friction” on the lives of law-abiding people “as a result of the actions of a tiny minority”.

He argued for a significant increase in the use of stop-and-search powers “to saturation”, saying this would remove deadly weapons from circulation.

There is no single knife crime statistics publication in the UK but as far as England and Wales goes, police recorded 51,527 offences across both nations in the year to June 2025, according to the latest figures, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, these figures show knife crime is falling by 5% compared with the same period last year and 7% compared with five years ago. Homicides involving a knife also fell by nearly a fifth in the latest year to 196 offences, compared with 239 the year before.