THE 'most dangerous' railway stations in Ayrshire have been revealed in new police statistics.

The British Transport Police (BTP) has published data on crime at every railway station across the United Kingdom.

Reports are broken down into two categories - offences at the station and crimes committed on trains and reported at each station.

The highest number of reports from the county came in from Kilwinning station, where 15 crimes have been reported in the last 12 months.

A further ten 'on-train crimes' have been reported from what is by far the most-used station in the whole of Ayrshire.

The total crimes reported from that station comes in at 25 - a slight increase of two from the previous 12 months.

Elsewhere, Ayr had a total of 16 reported crimes, Kilmarnock had 11, Irvine had 16, and Largs had six crimes.

Saltcoats had a total of five crimes reported in the last 12 months.

There were also a number of stations where no crime was reported at all such as Fairlie, Stewarton and Auchinleck.

However, a larger number of crimes may not necessarily make a station 'the most dangerous' in a technical sense.

Statistics are also broken down into 'crimes per 100,000 passengers' which should provide a more accurate picture of how often crime takes place at a station in relation to its usage.

Using this metric would make New Cumnock station the 'most dangerous'. Despite only one crime taking place at the station, this equates to 7.04 offences per 100,000 passengers using the station.

The 'most dangerous station' in terms of on-train crime was Prestwick Town, where five offences were reported, meaning 2.55 crimes were reported per 100,000 passengers using the station.

And the limits of the statistics are illustrated by the figure for Sanquhar, just across the border in Dumfries and Galloway, where three 'on-train crimes' made for a rate of 24.46 crimes per 100,000 station users, even though there were no station crimes recorded at Sanquhar at all.

All detailed information - including a breakdown of crime category, can be found online at crimemaps.btp.police.uk/.

Breakdown per station

East Ayrshire

  • Dunlop - Station crime =  0 : On-train crime = 0
  • Stewarton - Station crime =  0 : On-train crime = 0
  • Kilmaurs - Station crime =  0 : On-train crime = 0
  • Kilmarnock - Station crime =  7 (2.36 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 4 (1.35 per 100,000)
  • New Cumnock - Station crime =  1 (7.04 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 1 (7.04 per 100,000)
  • Auchinleck - Station crime =  0 : On-train crime = 0

North Ayrshire

  • Largs - Station crime =  2 (0.93 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 4 (1.86 per 100,000)
  • Fairlie - Station crime =  0 : On-train crime = 0
  • West Kibride - Station crime =  3 (3.5 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 0
  • Ardrossan Harbour - Station crime =  0 : On-train crime = 1 (1.8 per 100,000)
  • Ardrossan South Beach - Station crime =  5 (4.52 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 0
  • Ardrossan Town - Station crime =  0 : On-train crime = 0
  • Saltcoats - Station crime =  1 (0.6 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 4 (2.38 per 100,000)
  • Stevenston.- Station crime =  3 (4.55 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 1 (1.52 per 100,000)
  • Kilwinning - Station crime =  15 (2.97 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 10 (1.98 per 100,000)
  • Irvine - Station crime =  11 (2.26 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 5 (1.03 per 100,000)
  • Dalry - Station crime =  4 (3.92 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 2 (1.96 per 100,000)
  • Glengarnock - Station crime =  3 (1.77 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 0

South Ayrshire

  • Barassie - Station crime =  1 (1.18 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 2 (2.36 per 100,000)
  • Troon - Station crime =  7 (2.09 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 1 (0.3 per 100,000)
  • Prestwick International Airport - Station crime =  0 : On-train crime = 1 (2.15 per 100,000)
  • Prestwick Town - Station crime =  6 (3.05 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 5 (2.55 per 100,000)
  • Ayr - Station crime =  10 (1.29 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 6 (0.77 per 100,000)
  • Newton-on-Ayr - Station crime =  1 (2.51 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 0
  • Maybole - Station crime =  1 (2.23 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 0
  • Girvan - Station crime =  3 (4.38 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 0

Other

  • Kirkconnel - Station crime =  1 (10.74 per 100,000) : On-train crime = 0
  • Sanquhar - Station crime =  0 : On-train crime = 3 (24.46 per 100,000).