More than one in four people in Germany have said they have felt unsafe on buses or trains, according to a representative YouGov survey commissioned by Germany’s DPA news agency.

Overall, 27% of respondents said they had felt unsafe on public transport without being actively harassed, threatened or attacked.

Some 17% said they had witnessed others being attacked, threatened or harassed. Around 16% reported experiencing verbal harassment themselves, while 5% said they had been threatened and 4% said they had been physically attacked.

The survey found younger people under 40 were more likely to feel unsafe or report negative experiences than older respondents.

Women reported feeling unsafe more often, at 30%, compared with 23% of men, while differences between the sexes were small when it came to verbal harassment, threats or attacks.

The findings come after a train conductor was fatally injured during a ticket inspection on a regional express near Kaiserslautern last week.

The western German state North Rhine-Westphalia is proposing a new package of measures and is calling on the federal government to strengthen safety on trains ahead of a Deutsche Bahn security summit in Berlin.

The state, Germany’s most populous, wants to expand the use of two-person teams among train conductors. It is also urging the national government to provide legal clarity for the wearing of body cameras on public transport, which is currently voluntary.

North Rhine-Westphalia is also calling for upgraded technology to alert authorities and track suspects, more effective use of video surveillance, and an expanded deployment of security teams to protect passengers and rail staff.

The push follows an attack on a Deutsche Bahn conductor during a ticket inspection in Rhineland-Palatinate in early February. The 36-year-old died two days later from severe injuries.

Deutsche Bahn has invited the federal government, federal police, rail industry representatives, Germany’s states, regional transport authorities and unions to the summit.

Guten Tag from DW’s newsroom in Bonn.

You join us as Germany’s national rail operator invites officials from across the board to discuss safety on trains after a train conductor was killed while doing his job.

At the same time, a survey has found that about a quarter of people felt unsafe on public transport.

Stay with us for these and other Germany-related headlines from Friday, February 13.