Violence on Melbourne Trains
Living in rural Victoria many from the metropolitan area warn me that you never travel by trains at night in Melbourne.
Reid Saxton from The Age Newspaper reported in November 09 that Melbournians where afraid to travel by train of a night and say the rail system does not provide enough security.
Passengers rating survey taken by the Transport Department in early 2009 reveals that safety is the biggest concern for commuters. The concerns where security at station car parks (3.9 out of 10), staff presence on trains (4) and station security (4.3).
A report from Civil Engineering department at Monash University claims that as many as 30% of young people witnessed violence on public transport.
The Victorian Government have let contract to upgrade the rail system with better communications with trains and the control centre. The Victorian Police Transit Safety Division provides a visible police presence on the transit networks, predominantly in the Melbourne metropolitan area and investigates crime that occurs on Victorian transit networks. They and local police also patrol trains and pay regular visits to all stations. While some officers are in uniform, many work in plain clothes.
Metro Customer Service Officers travel on trains and visit stations to help you with your travel needs. Intelligence based tasking is used to focus on hotspots and ensure the safety and comfort of passengers.
Lanie Harris from Metro Trains said that they are committed to tackling personal safety and issues around the reliability of services. She insisted that many of the initiatives that young people were requesting were already in place. Ms Harris also said the perception of personal safety doesn’t always match the actual safety levels.
In 2009 we saw many reported and unreported incidents of racial violence and robbery on the train system that would give rise to concern for safety. Friends from the suburb of Sunshine says after hours you will often see gangs acting in a threatening manner hanging around the railway station and report that many will attack you if you just look at them.
For me I will stick with a taxi.
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