RMT backed a crackdown on football-related disorder on the rail network at the transport union’s AGM in Liverpool today.

Front-line transport workers are increasingly facing assaults, misogynistic abuse and appalling levels of anti-social behaviour from intoxicated supporters travelling to and from matches, delegates heard.

They called for stronger security measures, greater British Transport Police (BTP) presence and tougher sanctions on offenders, arguing that train operators should do far more to tackle a problem that is both predictable and preventable.

Moving the motion, train manager Annila Saghir spoke about her terrible experience of sexual assault while at work and how more needed to be done to protect rail workers, particularly women.

She said: “I was sexually assaulted by a football fan, on a train a few years ago, and it made me also realise how many things that I have had happen to me on board a train that I’ve let go and not reported.

“We have to be honest about who carries the weight of all this and it’s women. Women on our trains, women on our stations, women working on depots, and within that, outsourced cleaners and caterers are often the worst affected.”

She said that “proper security around reliable BTP presence and dry trains with alcohol confiscated at the gate line” were essential.

Seconding the successful motion, train guard Sue Gazzard said the brunt of this issue falls on women due to men seeing us “as vulnerable, they see you as a target and they think they can say whatever they want.”