Rail staff face probe for wolf-whistling at ‘terrified’ passenger
A WOMAN passenger has triggered an investigation by rail bosses after complaining that workers ‘wolf-whistled, shouted and leered’ at her.
Julia Harris said she was terrified by the group of workers in hi-visibility jackets as she waited for a train in the early hours of the morning on her own.
The PR executive was wearing a short dress after an awards ceremony when the Network Rail crew began ogling her and catcalling.
Frightened, she walked to the other end of the platform at Tunbridge Wells in Kent to seek shelter in the guard’s office.
In a tweet to Network Rail after the incident she complained that she was not offended by a wolf whistle but the ‘leeriness was... intimidating’. The company is now looking into the matter – including trawling through CCTV footage – after Miss Harris demanded assurances that women will be safe when travelling alone at night.
Speaking yesterday, she said: ‘I am a 34-year-old woman and I feel like I can take a lot, but what if it had been a 15 or 16-year-old?
‘I would have been absolutely terrified. What if this happened at a rural station? At least there are station staff at Tunbridge Wells.’
Mrs Harris was returning from an awards night organised by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in central London on June 8.
She was travelling to Hastings, East Sussex, and was switching trains at Tunbridge Wells at 12.30am when the workmen started shouting at her from the opposite platform.
‘I’d been to talk to the taxi drivers to see how much a taxi would be and it was as I was coming back onto the platform that they started shouting,’ she said.
‘The first thing was a wolf whistle. I looked up in a “What, seriously?” way. Then one shouted “Come over this side” and they were all laughing. I guess I was a novelty.
‘I had a short dress on as I’d been to the awards and they were laughing and jeering.’
Relieved to hear voices at the guard’s office, she quickly walked down the platform to safety.
The mother-of-one added: ‘I felt really intimidated and baffled – this was happening in the 21st century – and just a little bit outraged.’ In her tweet, Mrs Harris, who is separated from her husband, said:
‘What if it was a 15-year-old?’
‘While I’m not, in principle, offended by a wolf whistle, bearing in mind the time of night and that I was not just the only female at the station, I was the only other passenger, the leeriness was sufficiently intimidating for me to walk to the other end of the platform.’
A week later she is still waiting for Network Rail to establish who was responsible. ‘They don’t seem to know where their staff are at any one time or have checked platform CCTV,’ she said.
Network Rail – which manages Britain’s rail infrastructure – last night insisted it was taking the complaint ‘very seriously’.
A spokesman said: ‘This sort of behaviour is utterly unacceptable. Tunbridge Wells station is not managed by Network Rail, however we do have staff and contractors who work in and around it and all railway stations.
‘Therefore our team has asked for CCTV to be downloaded so we can investigate further and we are also checking our records.
‘We will be in touch with the woman as soon as we know more.’ It is not the first time women have complained of harassment after being whistled at.’ A construction firm in Worcester was last year subjected to a police probe after a young woman claimed she had been sexually harassed by builders who were wolf-whistling at her.
Marketing co- ordinator Poppy Smart, 23, said she was subjected to ‘disrespectful’ comments that she likened to racial discrimination as she walked to work. Police questioned the firm on suspicion of sexual harassment.