Altercation with rail staff

I've sent this complaint below, but I am still wondering whether to raise it with BTP or.another channel as i am so concerned at how the staff member behaved.

I was polite throughout, didnt shout or swear and still cant quite believe this happened - i do understand safety, but there is proportionality, and this reaction was totally disproprtionate. Screaming in someones face for being on the yellow line and resting on the pebbles is dangerous.


I was stood on platform 9 waiting for the. 0827. I had my feet on the yellow line and slighly over it resting on the raised pebbles to ease pressure in my left foot for a diagnosed medical condition

At 0825 while waiting for the 0827 Exter service to arrive i was shouted at byʻ a black female member of staff to move my foot back for no apparent reason. I have heard her before on this platform - she is repeatedly and regularly extremely aggressive and rude to customers and this was the same tone today. She has no customer relationship skills.

I moved my feet, but involuntarily due to the pain in my foot, subconciously moved the foot back onto the raised bobbled part of the platform (about 6" and i believed i was in the main standing behind the yellow line) and continued to wait for my train. A few moments later an extremely aggeessive man i did not recognise appeared.by.my side and started shouting at me.

I did not recognise him, and was immediately concerned for my personal safety due to his extremely aggressive tone and voice. I tried to avoid talking to him by briefly saying i did not speak english as he was so aggressive i was concerned he would hit me.

He walked right up to me, stood well inside my personal space boundaries and his stomach made physical contact with my groin area - this was unwanted physical contact, and a serious violation of my personal space in my most private parts of my body. This was non consensual physical contact.

CCTV footage will clearly show him stood within a couple of inches of my face, shouting in my face, so close that I believed that he spat on me in his anger.

He continued to shout at me, in my face, no more than 12" away while his belly remained in physical contact with my groin.

I politely advised him that this was unwanted.physical contact, and i felt this was assault, and poiltely asked for him to move. He refused and continued shouting at me as the train pulled in immediately behind. I cant remember what he said, i was so shocked by the whole experience.

As i tried to move past him to board the train, he continued to shout at me and i told him politely and clearly that he had made unwanted physical contact and that i would be reporting him for assault. His rwply was a sneering ‘show me on the camera where i assaulted you’.

At all times in this exchange i was polite, and non confrontational.

I am shocked at his attitude - a deeply aggressive angry.man with an explosive temper should not be in a public facing safety critical role.

To ignore my request to step back, when i advised he was touching me is worrying in the context of if he is prepared to non consensually invade the private space of a large male and physically contact them in their groin area, does he pose a danger to female passengers? Finally to dismiss my concerns with a ‘what will the camera show’ statement speaks to a man who is out of control and believes he can act with impunity.

Your staff member acted aggressively towards me, shouted at me and humiliated me on the platform at peak rush hour and then touched me in a non consensual and innapropriate manner in my groin area, and ignored my request to step back. He shouted in my face at about 12" distance, and as a result it felt like he was spitting on me, and made me feel genuinely concerned for my safety.

I use the railways daily and have never felt so concerned about the aggressive behaviour and completely over the top reaction to someone having their foot a few inches over the yellow line to ease pain in their foot for a diagnoses medical condition. I am likely to report this incident to British Transport Police as I am that concerned about this individuals behaviour.

I fully accept the need for safety, but the team regularly on Platform 9 are out of control. They shout at customers, and are in their actions making passengers less safe as a result.

What crime do you think the BTP would be investigating here? Just a question, because while the actions of the staff seem disproportionate it is also unclear what police intervention is warranted.

AlterEgo said:

What crime do you think the BTP would be investigating here? Just a question, because while the actions of the staff seem disproportionate it is also unclear what police intervention is warranted.

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Unwanted physical contact in my groin area. I'm a bloke, now replay that scenario in same circumstances if you are a solo female passenger...

There may be other routes, I dont know. Thats what i would welcome advice for here.

So there were TWO members of staff that irritated you?

Black female who's skin colour was worth menthioning and a male who's colour isn't required?

The railways not there to heal your foot condition, as for the unwarranted touching, complain to the TOC and follow it up with a phone call to their customer services as CCTV will need to be preserved.

If you feel it was a sexual/physical assault then BTP may take your complaint too.

GadgetMan said:

So there were TWO members of staff that irritated you?

Black female who's skin colour was worth menthioning and a male who's colour isn't required?

The railways not there to heal your foot condition, as for the unwarranted touching, complain to the TOC and follow it up with a phone call to their customer services as CCTV will need to be preserved.

If you feel it was a sexual/physical assault then BTP may take your complaint too.

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Yes - two and i specified to make identity easier as there were a few female staff around, but nice try at trying to make out I am a racist...

Thats the advice i needed re CCTV and i will follow up.

thruud said:

Unwanted physical contact in my groin area. I'm a bloke, now replay that scenario in same circumstances if you are a solo female passenger...

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Makes no difference as to whether that is a crime.

thruud said:

There may be other routes, I dont know. Thats what i would welcome advice for here.

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If you feel that you are a victim of crime (you were there, I wasn't!) you should contact the police. As it is, you have complained to their employer. In my experience (working on the inside of a TOC!) these complaints are investigated and the staff member will at the very least be spoken to, and CCTV viewed. However you will almost always receive a boilerplate response; you will not find out what, if any, action was taken against any staff, and you will probably be reminded that you mustn't stand in front of the yellow line. So I regret that I am pessimistic that you will feel satisfaction from the process regardless of what the actual outcome is.

There are some staff who are certainly aggressive, but it your safety is their legal responsibility and they can, and have, in the past, been punished - even by the law - when they have failed to enforce the rules. So while there are always some staff who seem loud or assertive, sometimes this can be understandable, though unprofessionalism can never be excused. Staff should of course **definitely not touch passengers** or invade their personal space unless it is absolutely necessary for their safety so the second member of staff really ought to have behaved better. As it is, you were over the line, then went over it again having already been told firmly not to. The "pebbles" are an aid for visually impaired people to let them know they are at the platform edge and that they are in a place of danger if not boarding a train. This means that you were in the wrong first, and also in breach of the law once you had been told not to go over the line (Bylaw 12(2)).

You can ask for CCTV to be preserved *now* by making a Subject Access Request - instead of ringing customer service you need to actually contact the company which manages the station, which in this case is Network Rail, and you can find out more about how to do it here: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/transparency-and-ethics/data-protection/ - all other persons will have their faces censored but yours will not be.

thruud said:

CCTV footage will clearly show him stood within a couple of inches of my face, shouting in my face, so close that I believed that he spat on me in his anger.

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Would CCTV also show you being beyond the yellow line, and refusing to follow the instructions of staff? If so, I'd be wary of involving the Police as they could end up going by the book and charging all parties.

thruud said:

He continued to shout at me, in my face, no more than 12" away while his belly remained in physical contact with my groin.

I politely advised him that this was unwanted.physical contact, and i felt this was assault, and poiltely asked for him to move. He refused and continued shouting at me as the train pulled in immediately behind.

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So, you, on (and just past the yellow line), with him in front of you, and a train pulling in behind - and you don't think he might have had any sort of reason to be wanting to move forward. A normal reaction would have been to take a step backwards, giving both yourself and himself more space. Any reason you didn't consider this?

If you have a problem with the staff at this unspecified location, the solution is to complain to their employers customer services department, not by involving the Police, expecially when you're in the wrong and ignoring their valid instructions. There was a very simple way to defuse the situation - by you moving and remaining behind the yellow line.

GadgetMan said:

So there were TWO members of staff that irritated you?

Black female who's skin colour was worth menthioning and a male who's colour isn't required?

The railways not there to heal your foot condition, as for the unwarranted touching, complain to the TOC and follow it up with a phone call to their customer services as CCTV will need to be preserved.

If you feel it was a sexual/physical assault then BTP may take your complaint too.

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Black people make up 4% of the UK population - if this is in the south-west (given the mention of Exeter), then 1%. Therefore, it is not unreasonable that this could be used to improve the odds of the staff member’s identification. We can work on the assumption that the male was white given white people make up 82% of the UK population (93% in the south-west), so this is far less useful to mention.

OP was treated appallingly and unprofessionally if this account is accurate - no need to try to defend the indefensible and victimise one of the staff members because of the colour of her skin/gender.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Aug 2026 ==

AlterEgo said:

What crime do you think the BTP would be investigating here? Just a question, because while the actions of the staff seem disproportionate it is also unclear what police intervention is warranted.

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That said, I tend to agree with this - I highly doubt BTP would take action on this. Your far better route is requesting access to CCTV and forwarding to the TOC who manages the station/employs those staff members along with a complaint. That way, they will at least get dealt with by internal proceedings and if there is clear video evidence of what you’ve described, I wouldn’t be surprised if this includes being written up (though you’ll never find out of course).

tatitiliti said:

Black people make up 4% of the UK population - if this is in the south-west (given the mention of Exeter), then 1%. Therefore, it is not unreasonable that this could be used to improve the odds of the staff member’s identification. We can work on the assumption that the male was white given white people make up 82% of the UK population (93% in the south-west), so this is far less useful to mention.

OP was treated appallingly and unprofessionally if this account is accurate - no need to try to defend the indefensible and victimise one of the staff members because of the colour of her skin/gender.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Aug 2026 ==


That said, I tend to agree with this - I highly doubt BTP would take action on this. Your far better route is requesting access to CCTV and forwarding to the TOC who manages the station/employs those staff members along with a complaint. That way, they will at least get dealt with by internal proceedings and if there is clear video evidence of what you’ve described, I wouldn’t be surprised if this includes being written up (though you’ll never find out of course).

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The OP was at Clapham Junction (it was in the thread title, which was changed after the OP attempted to delete the initial post)

thruud said:

I was stood on platform 9 waiting for the. 0827. I had my feet on the yellow line and slighly over it resting on the raised pebbles to ease pressure in my left foot for a diagnosed medical condition

At 0825 while waiting for the 0827 Exter service to arrive i was shouted at byʻ a black female member of staff to move my foot back for no apparent reason.

Click to expand...

I'm not justifying the rest of it, but this is the root of the problem. You need to be BEHIND the yellow line. It's absolute. Not 1cm over it, behind it. Not "in the main standing behind it", standing entirely behind it. Your entire body fully behind it including the tips of your toes. You weren't, so the situation started. Regardless of your medical condition the tactile paving isn't a foot massager, it's a safety device. If you need a foot massager buy one and go and sit down and use it, or ask a doctor to prescribe you one appropriate to your condition.

CLJ staff do tend to be rather shouty and enthusiastic in blowing whistles at people, but given the behaviour of some members of the public there and given the numbers they are dealing with in a cramped and decidedly unsuitable-for-purpose station it's kind of understandable that they are. I do find culturally that many staff south of London are less friendly than north of it, but that's London for you and it's by no means exclusive to the railway.

I do think the yellow line thing needs to be dealt with more systematically as there were recent changes in the policy approach to it, though people are now getting the idea and I've heard a lot less shouting about it of late, that said.

I don't think you'd have a case for assault there as it would need to be wilful and I don't think it was from your description. He may have been rude but the situation escalated because you didn't do as instructed the first time you were instructed to do it.

Bletchleyite said:

I do think the yellow line thing needs to be dealt with more systematically as there were recent changes in the policy approach to it, though people are now getting the idea and I've heard a lot less shouting about it of late, that said.

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I think one problem here is that on LU the line is much closer to the platform edge and no one seems to care about it (and if this changed I suspect London's transport would completely fall over at rush hour).

blimmo said:

I think one problem here is that on LU the line is much closer to the platform edge and no one seems to care about it (and if this changed I suspect London's transport would completely fall over at rush hour).

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TfL certainly does everything very differently to the mainline because not to do so would create bigger safety issues due to the crowding in stations it would cause if you held trains for longer. They even close doors on people - that would be gross misconduct if a guard or DOO driver did that on the mainline.

That was one reason why I favoured a more holistic approach to behaviour change with clearly annunciated announcements etc (there's a speculative thread on it somewhere if anyone wants to delve into options).

But in this case the OP knew they had to stand behind the yellow line and knew they weren't behind it and so couldn't feign ignorance, and shouldn't have been surprised when they were asked to move behind it, and should have done so when requested.

AlterEgo said:

The OP was at Clapham Junction (it was in the thread title, which was changed after the OP attempted to delete the initial post)

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Ah, well, the picture changes slightly in that case, but 10-19% depending on the area you use is still well within the bounds of being in the minority!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 Aug 2026 ==

Bletchleyite said:

I'm not justifying the rest of it, but this is the root of the problem. You need to be BEHIND the yellow line. It's absolute. Not 1cm over it, behind it. Not "in the main standing behind it", standing entirely behind it. Your entire body fully behind it including the tips of your toes. You weren't, so the situation started. Regardless of your medical condition the tactile paving isn't a foot massager, it's a safety device. If you need a foot massager buy one and go and sit down and use it, or ask a doctor to prescribe you one appropriate to your condition.

CLJ staff do tend to be rather shouty and enthusiastic in blowing whistles at people, but given the behaviour of some members of the public there and given the numbers they are dealing with in a cramped and decidedly unsuitable-for-purpose station it's kind of understandable that they are. I do find culturally that many staff south of London are less friendly than north of it, but that's London for you and it's by no means exclusive to the railway.

I do think the yellow line thing needs to be dealt with more systematically as there were recent changes in the policy approach to it, though people are now getting the idea and I've heard a lot less shouting about it of late, that said.

I don't think you'd have a case for assault there as it would need to be wilful and I don't think it was from your description. He may have been rude but the situation escalated because you didn't do as instructed the first time you were instructed to do it.

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This is all true, but there are ways for platform staff to deal with this while maintaining professionalism and courtesy towards reciprocating passengers that ultimately pay their salaries through fares and tax, if OP’s account is accurate.

As far as I remember, the CCTV is quite extensive and high-coverage at Clapham Junction so this may settle it.