Some good news for the capital’s commuters- travelling on London’s buses has become safer, according to figures released by Transport for London.

Although bus-related offences fell by more than nine per cent overall between April 2011 and January 201 across London, in Newham the drop was nearly 25 per cent.

Figures from the Metropolitan Police have shown that across London violent crime is down by 14 per cent compared to the same period in 2010/11; criminal damage on the bus network is down by 13 per cent, and theft is down by 10 per cent. There are now just nine crimes per million passenger journeys on London’s buses.

In Newham there were a total of 220 bus related crimes for Q3 2011/12 compared with 293 in Q3 2010/11. In addition, later figures from TfL show a drop of 123 crimes for the period April 2011-Jan 2012 when compared with the previous period.

A spokesman for TfL said the encouraging results are largely down to the work of the TfL-funded MPS Safer Transport Command. These highly visible local teams are working with community groups and schools, conducting intelligence-led operations and are a visible deterrent on the network.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “Bus crime in London has already fallen by 30 per cent over the last four years and we are taking strong action to ensure that trend continues. Our continued investment, increasing police presence, aims to make buses safer still for every single passenger.”

Over the last four years the Mayor and TfL has increased investment in transport safety and security. In the summer of 2008 Safer Transport Teams were introduced to all London Boroughs and the Mayor has recently provided funding for over 400 additional warranted Metropolitan Police officers to police the capital’s bus network.

Despite the overall reductions in crime, there was a recent increase in robbery offences on the capital’s bus network. Although the number of robberies are relatively low - particularly in context of the billions of journeys made on the network each year. TfL has said it is not complacent and has put in place measures to deal with the recent trend.r