People are “frightened stiff” of using trains late at night because stations are “dingy”, according to a Surrey county councillor. 

Cllr Mike Bennison said people were being put off using the trains at night because of crime and the condition of the stations they had to walk out of.

He directed his comments to representatives from Network Rail and South Western Railway (SWR) at Elmbridge Borough Council overview and scrutiny meeting on Thursday (January 17), following a spate of knife crimes in the county.

The Tory councillor said they were seeing a trend of gangs coming into Elmbridge by trains in the evening, getting into fights, then getting back onto the train.

He said:  “My people at the moment are frightened stiff with the stabbings that have been going on and the crime that has been going on.

“We have problems with Claygate. There seems to be teams coming in the evening, having fights, get back on the train and move to the next station.”

He questioned whether there was sufficient CCTV coverage for the trains and “dark and dingy” stations.

David Langton, head of communications for Network Rail Wessex route, said they work closely with British Transport Police to make the network safe.

He said: “Naturally we take security on our railways incredibly seriously and the safety of our passengers is paramount.

“The stabbing we saw a couple of weeks ago was appalling and dreadful and gratefully those incidents are rare on the railway where people are stabbed on trains or on our ground.

“I would like to think where staff see people at peril or at risk that they do intervene and police are called and the right action is taken.”

David Wilby, regional development manager for SWR, said all their trains have CCTV and that they work with British Transport and Surrey police.

Cllr Neil Houston also asked why it was so difficult to get graffiti removed from bridges.

He said: “The community sees it, it looks horrible and it doesn’t set a good example.”

Mr Langton said: “We do appreciate graffiti is unsightly and it really brings down a local area. We do prioritise where graffiti is offensive or abusive. We will take action within 24 hours to remove it.”

When the graffiti is not offensive it goes into a “work bank”, he said, and it was often in “hard to reach areas” and they needed specific equipment to get to the paint.

The train representatives were also grilled over lack of facilities for disabled passengers, problems with leaves at stations, doors closing 45 seconds early, 10-coach trains in off-peak times and not peak times and trains skipping stations to meet Waterloo arrival times.