UK: Train passengers told to "Be aware of pickpockets and Gypsies"

A train company in Great Britain has begun investigating who is behind a racist announcement that was made over its public address system earlier this month. "Telford Central – please be aware of pickpockets and Gypsies" a voice announced over the public address system as the train pulled into the station.

A passenger recorded the announcement on his mobile telephone. A spokesperson for the London Midland train company said it has begun an internal investigation of the incident, which occurred on Saturday, 15 March, when the train was transporting fans to a local football match. 

"We do not tolerate comments of this nature being made by anyone on a London Midland train, and a full internal investigation is being carried out," the BBC reported a company spokesperson as saying. "[We are] deeply sorry to anyone who was offended by the announcement."

The company said it has not yet received any official complaints about the incident. A video taken by a passenger with a mobile telephone shows the train pulling into the station, people preparing to exit, the racist announcement coming from the speakers, and the passengers, most of them football fans, responding with applause, laughter, and shouts of agreement.

Les Walton of BBC Shropshire was also on the train. "There were lots and lots of football fans that had been to the Wolves v Shrewsbury game and they kept them at one end of the train. Each time the train stopped at a station the announcer would make a witty remark which I assume was to keep the football crowd amused and in a good mood, but when it pulled into the Telford station and the announcement was made everyone looked at each other in disbelief. There was some nervous laughter, not because it was funny, but because people could not believe he had said that," Walton said.

Damian Le Bas, editor of the Travellers Times magazine, told the BBC that: "In the first instance this is very likely to offend many Romany Gypsies, who are protected under the Race Relations Act of 2004. I don’t agree with the use of certain words being banned but it is an ethnic word and to juxtapose it with pickpockets, which suggests criminality, is very offensive."

Bill Kerswell, a spokesperson for an organization called The Gipsy Council, said: “This is unlawful, it is a racist comment. It is the same as using any offensive word relating to homosexuals or people of color. I would think it is a police matter and I hope they take it up and look into it.”