Bodycams, De-escalation Drills and a Six-Month Minimum: Europe's Rail Staff Fight Back Against Passenger Aggression

Almost one in ten workplace accidents among transport company employees can be traced to an assault by a third party, according to industry surveys — and the aftermath frequently requires psychological counselling or treatment. Verbal attacks and physical assaults have weighed heavily on train crews and ticket inspectors for years, prompting operators, unions and lawmakers to respond with a mix of training, technology and legislative initiatives.

Training the trainers, and cameras on the Warendorfer

Demand for sector-specific violence-prevention programmes remains persistently high. One key approach is training in-house multipliers who can then deliver courses directly within their own companies. Operators such as DB Regio already put their train staff through targeted de-escalation training to prepare them for critical situations.

Technology is increasingly supplementing prevention. On Eurobahn's Regionalbahn 67 service — known locally as the Warendorfer — conductors wear bodycams as protection against aggressive passengers. The cameras rarely need to be switched on in day-to-day operations, but they give staff a greater sense of security.

Unions, for their part, want the public purse to contribute more. The Eisenbahn- und Verkehrsgewerkschaft (EVG), the railway and transport workers' union, is calling on the state of Rhineland-Palatinate to invest noticeably more in the safety of rail personnel.

A Berlin campaign and a tougher criminal code

Beyond internal measures, operators are reaching out to the public. Since 10 November, a joint campaign by 14 municipal companies has been running on the Berlin U-Bahn under the slogan "Mehr Respekt. Mehr Wert für Berlin" ("More respect. More value for Berlin").

Scheduled to run until the end of January 2027, the initiative uses roughly 3,200 screens of the passenger TV service Berliner Fenster in almost 1,000 carriages to highlight rising levels of insult and assault against transport staff. According to the operator, it generates more than 2.3 million gross contacts per day.

At federal level, a tightening of criminal law is in preparation. A Bundeskabinett decision of 30 September 2026 would see physical attacks on emergency and auxiliary personnel, as well as on rail transport staff, punished more severely.

The minimum sentence is to rise from three to six months, while particularly serious cases could carry up to ten years' imprisonment.

A reform of the Strafgesetzbuch (the German criminal code) would also create standalone protection for train conductors and for workers in the supply and waste-disposal sectors, with penalties ranging from six months to five years. The Bundestag and Bundesrat must still approve the legislation before it can take effect.

Italy tests its own remedies

Other European countries face comparable problems, with unions and transport associations searching for practical safety concepts of their own.

In the Italian province of Pistoia, authorities, transport operators and unions signed an agreement on 12 November 2026 that provides for bodycams for exposed staff as well as on-board emergency call systems and legal and psychological support following assaults.

In Treviso, transport companies and the prefecture agreed on the same day to coordinated operations with security forces. At the same time, employee representatives point out that technical equipment such as emergency buttons and cameras reaches its limits without sufficient accompanying staff and a reliable network connection.