Crime On The London Tube: The Central Line Is THE WORST

The most crime-ridden line and station on the London Underground

The 150-year-old London tube network has certainly seen a whole lot of commuter anguish in its time - because transporting 1.305 billion passengers per year is stressful for everyone involved.

Which brings us to crime on the London Underground. Obviously, it happens, and thanks to a Freedom of Information request from journalist Susie Coen, we know which the worst-hit lines and destinations are.

Coen discovered that between 1 January 2014 and 8 December 2015 there were 3,855 recorded offences on the Central line.

It’s official, the Central line is the network’s worst for crime. As for the most crime-ridden station? That would be Liverpool Street, during the same time frame 468 offences were recorded.

Interestingly, the London Underground’s busiest station, Oxford Circus (used by around 98 million passengers in 2014), didn’t make the list of top 10 most hit by crime. What’s more the Victoria line as a whole had fewer offences committed (and reported) on it than the Central, Piccadilly, Jubilee, Northern and District lines.

Some facts: the London Underground ranks 11th on the list of the world’s busiest networks (six of the world’s ten busiest are in Asia). An average train travels at 33kph, the network serves 270 stations and is a total of 250 miles in length. This is vital pub quiz fodder, commit it to memory.

Another thing Susie Coen discovered from statistics obtained from the British Transport Police (BTP) was that sexual assaults on the tube are NOT most common late at night. Between 1 January 2014 and 8 December 2015, 322 sexual assaults were reported on the London Underground network between 5pm and 7pm, along with 291 from 8am until 10am. Just 110 were reported as having occurred between 11pm and 1am.

The numbers challenge the widely accepted thinking that women are most vulnerable when travelling late at night. And suggests that we should be more aware when travelling during rush hour too.

Total number of recorded offences on tube lines: Central line: 3,855 Piccadilly line: 3,501 Jubilee line: 3,284 Northern line: 3,137 District line: 2, 696 Victoria line: 2,510 Circle and Hammersmith and City line: 2,143 Bakerloo like: 1,614 Metropolitan line: 1,472 Docklands light railways: 1,311 Waterloo and city line: 21 Thameslink: 1

Total number of recorded offences at stations: Liverpool Street: 468 Leicester Square: 405 Stockwell: 210 Paddington: 197 Warren Street: 110 Upton Park: 103 Old Street: 97 St Paul’s: 95 Kilburn: 93 Moorgate: 88

This London Underground tube map reveals the average house price at every stop