CANINE colleagues Riley, Buster and Flo have joined the South Western Railway (SWR) and Network Rail Wessex (NR Wessex) team at London Waterloo, providing extra reassurance for customers and strengthening security at Britain’s biggest station.

The dogs began regular patrols this month as part of a three-month trial. While their arrival is not linked to any increased threat, their visible presence will offer an added deterrent and help colleagues maintain a safe and welcoming environment for customers.

Riley, aged 11, and Buster, aged 9, are Cocker Spaniels, while Flo, aged 10, is a Labrador. London Waterloo will be their last deployment before retirement.

Dan Harrison, Station Manager for South Western Railway and Network Rail Wessex at London Waterloo said:

“Security needs constant innovation and we’re taking positive steps to reassure our customers that we take their safety very seriously.

“Deploying these dogs is not linked to any increased threat. it’s simply part of providing more visual deterrence and offering our customers some additional reassurance.

“In the same way, we recently equipped all our colleagues with new hi-vis tabards to make them more easily identifiable to customers in the station who might need their help.”

For the deployment, SWR and NR Wessex have partnered with Alpha Canine Specialists, which provides fully certified canine security solutions for the public and private sectors.

London Waterloo is the first major station in Britain to deploy dogs as part of a wider programme designed to keep customers and colleagues safe at stations and on trains.  

Other recent measures include equipping colleagues with body-worn cameras to tackle assaults and abuse, launching a renewal and upgrade of CCTV across the network, and investing in a South Bank BID outreach worker who engages with vulnerable young people around London Waterloo.

These efforts have earned SWR maximum marks in the British Transport Police’s Safeguarding on Rail Scheme accreditation for the past three years.

Now integrated with NR Wessex under public ownership, SWR and NR Wessex will be the first integrated business unit to apply for the new Safer Railway Scheme accreditation, which is succeeding the Safeguarding on Rail Scheme.

All SWR and NR Wessex colleagues at Waterloo also wear a shared hi-vis uniform to create a unified identity and make them easier to spot around the station.