Street pastors at Central Station with aid for boozed- up travellers
GLASGOW Street Pastors are now operating from Glasgow Central Station to help boozy passengers who have had too much alcohol on a night out.
The voluntary group are based in the city’s busiest stations at weekends as part of a move initiated by British Transport Police.
Currently, transport cops have to deal with drunk passengers who are prevented from travelling on trains for safety reasons.
Under the initiative, those passengers can be handed over to the street pastors, who can look after them while they sober up.
PC Caroline Irving, who is a British Transport Police officer based at Glasgow Central, said: “In Central Statio,, if someone has had too much to drink, they are turned away from the barrier because they are not fit to travel. This means that police officers have to then look after them and we could be sitting for hours waiting on someone to collect them.”
She added: “We spoke to Glasgow Street Pastors who suggested they could come into the station which Network Rail agreed.”
Glasgow Street Pastors are based at the disability point in the station between the hours of 10.30pm to 12.30am on Fridays and Saturdays. They began volunteering in the station on Friday and they will offer the service they are renowned for in the city including handing out flip flops to ladies with sore feet who have worn high heels on a night out or providing a charger service to those who have no battery left in their mobile phone.
Once the station closes at around 1am, anyone who is in the care of the streets pastors will then be taken onto the city’s safe zone at the St George’s Tron Church on Buchanan Street until someone comes to collect them.
PC Irving said: “I think it is one of the best thing’s to happen to Glasgow Central.”
Stuart Crawford, co- ordinator of Glasgow Street Pastors, added: “It’s a privilege to work with agencies like British Transport Police and Network Rail.”