Ask any woman you know about harassment or assault on public transport and it’s more than likely she’ll have a story – if not several – of the time it happened to her. A straw poll of the Stylist office yielded account after account depressingly quickly, from being “stalked” through train carriages and openly asked for sex, to being groped, forcibly kissed and having a man grab them between the legs.

And every other week it seems someone’s story goes viral online, either because the fact nobody helped is disappointingly familiar, or because it’s a relief to hear of someone who did step in.

One of the most hopeful things we can take from how regularly it comes up is that continuing to bring attention to the issue opens more and more people’s eyes to the fact it’s an everyday occurrence for women across the nation – and its impact can be devastating.

Now, new figures reveal that the number of reported sexual offences on trains in Britain has more than doubled in the last five years, and could be an indication that women are more and more likely to report such incidents – meaning there’s a better chance it will be acknowledged as a serious, widespread issue.

Thanks to a freedom of information request by BBC Radio Five Live, statistics for 2016-17 have been released by British Transport Police (BTP), revealing 1,448 offences against women and girls aged 13 and over were reported. In 2012-13, 650 were reported.

More and more women are reporting being sexually assaulted on trains