Security

[ie219]

Recently I traveled on the Chicago and St. Louis Metro and Amtrak. And as always I was impressed by security on these systems compared to IE and LUAS

St. Louis metro has security at every station and visits on the train too. All eating drinking, loud music and foul language is banned too. Chicago with it many stations are staffed too

Amtrak has crew on intercity services. Guess what you are told in no uncertain terms that if you cause a problem you will be removed from the train, example, smoking rudeness to crew and passengers.

We have terrible problems on public transport affecting crews if they are around and passengers. The only way we will solve the problem is to educate passengers in the way they should behave when using trains and be clear about rules. Crews on trains and meaningful support for them and enforcement of those rule by a transport police.

Gerard

[James Shields]

I think a lot of good points here.

I have only seen a couple of incidents of anti-social behaviour, but all accounts suggest there are far too many.

I really think we need a much more visible security presence, and a zero tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour.

I also agree we need a dedicated transport police.

The problem is all of this will need to be funded, and either funding needs to be diverted from running trains, or extra money needs to become available.

[Mark Gleeson]

The American model of rent a cops everywhere isn't what people want, but the US is a scary place in general.

Rarely see cops in Germany, yet
1. People behave
2. If you call the cops you get a immediate response

Irish Rail's problem is
1. Gardai are very slow to appear to a on train incidents
2. Lack of effective court system to lock people up

A dedicated transport police is essential

[dowlingm]

Toronto is the closest Canadian equivalent to an American city in respect to crime and it is by no means common to see police/special constables at each station or anything like it. Missouri has a high rate of firearms death even within the US.

However there are patrols at busier stations; for me the key is for security to be visible frequently enough that such miscreants can’t be sure that cops aren’t nearby at any point in time, moving between stations and on and off vehicles. I have wondered in the past if giving free travel to uniformed Gardai would help in curbing the worst behaviours.

[Mickey H]

Originally Posted by dowlingm

Toronto is the closest Canadian equivalent to an American city in respect to crime and it is by no means common to see police/special constables at each station or anything like it. Missouri has a high rate of firearms death even within the US.

However there are patrols at busier stations; for me the key is for security to be visible frequently enough that such miscreants can’t be sure that cops aren’t nearby at any point in time, moving between stations and on and off vehicles. I have wondered in the past if giving free travel to uniformed Gardai would help in curbing the worst behaviours.

When I was in Toronto in 2011 the GO Transit (armed) police were responsible for checking tickets. I found them polite and helpful