Dumbarton rail users will see an increase in officers on their routes after the British Transport Police (BTP) launched a campaign to crackdown on unwanted sexual behaviour on trains.

Sexual offences on Scotland's railways have seen a 35% rise in the past year as passengers return to train travel post-lockdown.

There have been 70 sexual offences recorded in the 2020/21 year compared with 52 in 2019/20.

And the BTP are urging travellers to report anything amiss to help cut crime.

Inspector Alasdair McWhirter said: "The campaign is to encourage people to report unwanted sexual behaviour, the idea being that there's a lot of witnesses on board and we'd want to encourage them to come forward and report inappropriate behaviours.

"We rely on passengers to give us that information and help us tackle it.

Dumbarton and Vale of Leven Reporter: British Transport Police is tackling sexual harrassment

"There are certain lines of route and locations where these offences happen, and it also allows us to build up an offender profile of who is committing these offences.

"We've seen in recent years there have been some pretty horrific crimes, so this is to reassure the public that we're out there and engaging and encouraging people to report crimes to us with the confidence that we are going to investigate them thoroughly."

Anyone who spots an issue is urged to report it using a text number on 61016.

And Alasdair said police will take all reports seriously - even something seemingly minor.

He added: "There are more offences occurring out there that are just not getting reported.

"This campaign is to encourage the reporting of those offences and anything at all that's inappropriate, such as unwanted sexual attention.

Dumbarton and Vale of Leven Reporter: British Transport Police is tackling sexual harrassment

"It doesn't need to be the most serious crimes, it can be anything from someone just staring at you too long or sitting too close to you.

"Anything that makes you feel uncomfortable."

Trains are what Alasdair calls "a CCTV rich environment" and as such, detection rates are relatively high at 46%.

But he wants to ensure more perpetrators are snared and that women are able to travel by train without fear.

He said: "[Unwanted attention] has almost become the norm and become accepted and it's absolutely not the case that it should be that way.

"We need to change the behaviours of those making people feeling uncomfortable - you shouldn't have to change your behaviour as the result of somebody else taking inappropriate actions."