“I REMEMBER when I got the phone call about brother Jorge Ortega. A shocking incident. But the worrying and scary thing was from the union’s point of view, I wasn’t surprised.” 

Ross Marshall, a London Underground worker of over 20 years, recalled with horror finding out about the killing of Ortega at Ilford Station last year.

He has been raising the appalling uptick in violence as a workplace issue repeatedly, but employers do not seem inclined to take action.

“It has been spoken about, it had been raised by us, by other unions, and around the country about the level of shocking violence against transport workers.

“My own grades, in the same year, three members of my team — three members of this union — suffered horrific assaults, among many. One was knocked completely unconscious and still suffers flashbacks and brain problems to this day.”

“How have we come to this?”

It is a good question, and part of the answer would appear to lie in attempts to de-staff the railway, both on the mainline and the London Underground, over the years.

Marshall said: “In 2014, the first major job restructuring programme cut nearly 800 station staff roles from the network. Then, in 2016, under the so-called Fit for the Future plan, management claimed they would modernise staffing, but instead, they left many stations operating with staffing levels reminiscent of Victorian times. And even now, we are still facing ongoing waves of job cuts.

“The consequence is that there are parts of the Underground — especially after a certain time — that are becoming no-go areas. So what do we do about it? Where are the BTP as a deterrent?”

Marshall’s frustration is understandable given that the British Transport Police has faced swingeing cuts. In 2025 alone, the BTP is facing significant funding cuts due to an £8.5 million shortfall.

These cuts are expected to result in the closure of up to 17 BTP stations and the loss of nearly 300 jobs.

But despite these appalling statistics of assaults and cuts, Marshall received rapturous applause when he pointed out in a recent survey of over 6,000 transport workers, over 75 per cent are prepared to take industrial action if company bosses do not do more to protect their workforce.

“Members prepared to take action, and enough is enough,” he declared.

Steven Finn from Leeds city branch agreed that on the railway mainline, the situation regarding BTP was equally bleak.

“We’ve seen large areas of the country where there are no BTP available,” he said.

“Recently, we had two members sacked for taking matters into their own hands, rightly or wrongly, but it was because of a lack of BTP response.”

In one of the most moving accounts in the whole conference, delegate Joe Simpson described being assaulted during a shift and how RMT helped him “get through the investigation,” achieving a successful outcome where the company was held to account.

Referring to the union’s campaign “Action on Assaults,” he said: “It raised my spirits this morning when I came in and saw this [Action on Assaults campaign]. I am passionate about it, and we all should be.

“The report states that 63 per cent of respondents experienced violence in the past year, with 85 per cent facing violence multiple times. The most common form was verbal abuse, reported by 92 per cent, followed by threats of violence and physical assaults, which affected 63 per cent of those surveyed.”

He added: “Without RMT, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Concluding the debate, Jessica Robinson from Darlington highlighted the need to fund the BTP properly, particularly during rowdy football matches, saying: “If the government can spend plenty of money sending weapons to commit genocide, can they please spare a few quid to stop me getting lamped on a random Saturday afternoon?”