Vandals, drunks and thieves can be as much a problem at railway stations as elsewhere, and public transport campaigner David Redgewell is calling for more police community support officers (PCSOs) to help tackle the problem.

He is concerned after a number of incidents at stations across the South West in recent weeks, and he is calling on the Department for Transport to specify PCSOs as the best form of security for the area covered by train operator First Great Western.

The company has PCSOs to back British Transport Police at Bristol and Reading and has invested more than £100,000 in a neighbourhood policing team of PCSOs based at Bath Spa station. But it also uses private security firms. Mr Redgewell argues fellow operator South West Trains has seen vandalism fall since pioneering the use of PCSOs.

Mr Redgewell, South West co-ordinator for Campaign for Better Transport, said yesterday: "We must reclaim stations from the vandals. Yobs have no place on our railways. Stations in the greater Bristol area are experiencing really good growth with use up 27 to 30 per cent because First Great Western is doing its job.

"The company has really turned things around but there has been a spate of vandalism across the South West recently and unlike private security firms, police community support officers can give out on-the-spot fines and make arrests."

Recent incidents in First Great Western's area have included an armed robbery at Trowbridge railway station, and damage to a freight train near the same station after an industrial wheelie bin was pushed onto the line. The neighbourhood policing team at Bath Spa was set up partly in response to concerns about revellers passing through the station on Friday and Saturday nights.

Two men have been charged following the robbery in which a ticket office attendant was allegedly tied up and threatened and had his gold wrist chain stolen. Two men have also been arrested in connection with the wheelie bin incident.

The British Transport Police Bath Spa neighbourhood police unit is responsible for 100 miles of track and surrounding stations including Westbury, Chippenham and Swindon. The station is one of the busiest in the South West and handles five million passengers.

Sergeant Mark Harris of British Transport Police said: "It is no different from any other big city.

"The majority of people are well-behaved. In an ideal world more police officers and PCSOs are bound to help but realistically there is a cost implication."

A spokesman for First Great Western said: "It's true that we do occasionally have vandalism and graffiti on our stations, but to no greater or lesser extent than other operating companies. It is generally minor and obviously we work very closely with British Transport Police.

"Some of the stations are quite remote. We have clear polices about how to deter vandalism and graffiti because we want to keep our stations in good order. We are interested in what Mr Redgewell has to say but there are issues of funding."