DNA swab kits will soon be given to staff at Northern Rail to help them get saliva samples from abusive customers who spit on them.

The company, which runs services through York and the North-East of England, said it plans to introduce the kits to help increase the chance of prosecuting offenders.

The kits are part of a raft of safety measures the company, which has an office in York, wants to bring forward over the next 12 months.

Also on the cards is the trial of an "Identicom" system - a James Bond-style voice activated microphone which is disguised as a badge.

The microphone is linked to a monitoring centre which can call for help if a member of staff is attacked.

Northern, which runs services from York to Selby and Harrogate, said it was committed to providing the best possible safety measures to protect its employees.

A spokeswoman said: "Northern Rail is committed to completely eradicating this kind of problem. These measures show how committed we are to our staff, and we think they are a positive step in the right direction."

The measures were unveiled as part of Network Rail's annual plan.

Cutting overcrowding, improving punctuality and making services more accessible to the disabled will also be its priorities for the next 12 months.

The company said it aimed to ensure no passenger had to stand for more than 20 minutes during peak times. It also said it would undertake a programme of train counts to see how its customers used its services.

That information would allow Northern to produce proposals which could match existing train capacity to demand.

Northern also stressed its commitment to reliability and punctuality and said it would target a "public performance measure" of 83.8 per cent by December.

Heidi Mottram, Northern managing director, said: "This annual plan is designed to help stakeholders, customers, staff and communities served by Northern understand what type of company we are and how we plan to achieve our aims.

"This is an exciting time for rail travel in the North of England. We want to drive forward our vision of providing customers with a safe and reliable service that is constantly looking to build on its improvements."

Updated: 11:10 Friday, March 11, 2005