Sexual offenses on trains: Bavaria's railway is becoming increasingly insecure!

In Bavaria, the sexual offenses in the area around the train rose significantly. In the first nine months of 2024, the federal police registered a total of 224 cases of sex offenses on trains and on rail systems, which statistically corresponds to an incident per working day. Compared to previous years there is a worrying trend: In 2019, only 168 sex offenses were reported, while in 2022 229 and 2023 even 246 cases were registered. This corresponds to an increase of 46 percent compared to 2019, such as Br.de

A spokesman for the federal police pointed out that the number of unreported cases of sexual offenses is unknown, since not all incidents are reported. It can also happen that a registered case turns out to be an unfounded suspicion. The number of cases vary greatly at various large main train stations in Bavaria. 4 offenses were registered in Augsburg in 2019, while in 2023 there were only 3. In Nuremberg, the number of 20 offenses rose to 40 in 2022 in 2019 before it went back to 33 in 2023. Munich experienced an increase from 15 to almost 30 offenses in the same period, and in Regensburg the number of 1 to 11 offenses increased.

violence at train stations and in trains

The numbers for other violent crimes also show an increase. From January to the end of October 2024, around 10,600 assault were registered at train stations in Germany, in 2023 it was 10,115. 2,661 attacks were reported in trains on the open route by the end of October 2024. This suggests a falling inhibition threshold for violence. A total of around 20 million travelers frequent 5,700 train stations in Germany every day. In order to ensure more security, Deutsche Bahn plans to increase the number of video cameras in train stations to 11,000 and to increase in regional and S-Bahn trains to over 50,000, as bundesag.de reported.

The federal police police input statistics show a total of 25,640 violent offenses for 2023, including 1,898 sexual offenses and 1,125 weapon offenses. These statistics reflect a worrying tendency that leads to intensive discussion about safety at train stations and trains.