Gatwick Express has sparked fury and confusion after warning customers staff are fitted with bodycams to tackle “prickly behaviour”.
The train operator has erected new signs around stations warning cautioning against antisocial behaviour. Instead, customers have branded them “plain wrong” and “nonsense”.
“There’s no excuse for prickly behaviour,” the sign reads.
“Our colleagues wear bodycams for everyone’s security. Abusive behaviour will not be tolerated under any circumstances.
“Our colleagues are here to help you, so please treat them with respect. We will always push for the strongest penalties for anyone found guilty of antisocial behaviour.”
But it has left customers bemused as to what “prickly” behaviour actually means.
“The absolute state of modern Britain,” one user wrote.
“It’s now prohibited to be ‘prickly’. This poster is just plain wrong.”
Gatwick Express has sparked fury and confusion after warning customers staff are fitted with bodycams to tackle ‘prickly behaviour’
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Another said: “I’m feeling particularly prickly just looking at that.”
A third fumed: “Being ‘prickly’ is the least of our problems in terms of antisocial behaviour.
“They used taxpayers’ money to pay for this joke.”
While a fourth simply asked: “Who designs this nonsense?”
Last summer, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said there had been a “serious escalation” in violent and antisocial behaviour across Southern and Gatwick Express services.
The union claimed at the time that staff face daily incidents of assault, threats, spitting, verbal abuse, and intimidation.
“The level of violence on GTR’s Southern and Gatwick Express services and stations has reached a crisis point and is totally unacceptable,” Eddie Dempsey, RMT General Secretary, said.
“Our members are being assaulted, threatened and abused at work, and the company is not doing enough to stop it.”
Last summer, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said there had been a ‘serious escalation’ in violent and antisocial behaviour across Southern and Gatwick Express services
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Govia Thameslink Railway, which operates the services, said more than 1,500 body-worn cameras had been made available for staff which, they claimed, reduces assaults by 47 per cent.
Last week, Gatwick Express cancelled all services after a weekend of engineering on the Brighton main line. Replacement buses were instead used.
This weekend (January 24 and 25), no Gatwick Express trains will run between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport.
GB News has approached Gatwick Express for comment.