CRIME is on the increase on Britain's railways, official figures revealed today.

Violent crime rose by almost a quarter in the last year, according to the British Transport Police annual report.

It showed overall crime rose by just over ten per cent and public disorder offences were up by almost a fifth.

The force blamed some of the increases on changes in the way crimes are counted and compiled.

Sex offences were down by 2.1 per cent and the force cracked down hard on robberies - a key Government target - which were down by almost a third.

The statistics show that 2,304 robbery offences were recorded in 2002/3, 32 per cent down on the previous year, while the detection rate rose by six per cent to 26%.

Overall, reported crime rose by 10.4 per cent in 2002/03 - an additional 7,673 crimes - but 96 per cent of that increase was theft of passengers' property, up 21 per cent on the national rail system and 50 per cent on the London Underground.

Updated: 14:20 Friday, August 01, 2003