Shock figures reveal attacks on rail staff
THE shocking volume of abuse suffered by Merseyrail staff has been revealed.
Newly released data show the number of violent, racist and abusive attacks over the past year.
A Freedom of Information request, submitted by the Advertiser’s sister paper the Liverpool ECHO to British Transport Police, revealed that, between September 2016 and September 2017, there were 140 assaults or attacks on Merseyrail staff – either on trains or at stations.
Ten of the recorded attacks were described as “racially or religiously aggravated”.
The largest proportion of incidents were described as public order offences – there were 85 of these, for offences such as causing fear or harass- ment. There were also 45 recorded incidents of common assault.
The data also show how investigations into each of the incidents progressed.
Only 16 of the attacks or assaults resulted in people being charged, while on two occasions penalty orders for disorder were issued.
In 31 of the cases, investigations were closed because no suspect could be identified.
The figures have been obtained at a time when Merseyrail bosses are locked in a bitter dispute with the Rail and Maritime Transport Workers union (RMT) over a plan to remove the network’s 220 guard roles.
This is because the £460m fleet of trains to arrive on the network from 2020 onwards will be driver-controlled and will not require guards to open and close doors.
The union has said it believed the guard posi- tions were “critical” to the safety of the travelling public and has said it will continue to hold strikes until Merseyrail provides a guarantee that all services will be manned by a guard.
The latest 24-hour walkout has been organised for Wednesday, November 8 – which will coincide with a strike of Arriva bus staff and is likely to cause serious travel disruption around the region.
Responding to the latest figures about attacks on staff, Merseyrail bosses have insisted that the network is safe for both passengers and staff – and said that “notifiable crimes” had more than halved since the latest franchise started in 2003.
A spokesman said: “Physical assaults on staff are down 6.4% year-onyear and verbal assaults on staff have dropped by 13.6% year-on-year.
“We take crimes against our employees very seriously – and are constantly looking at ways to make their working environments even safer.
“Over the last year, we have upped the number of by-law enforcements officers on the network, equipped some station staff with body-worn cameras, collaborated with the British Transport Police on high-profile campaigns – such as the hate crime initiative – and trained all our frontline staff in conflict management.”
But RMT spokesman John Tilley said the figures showed how important it was to retain the guards on Merseyrail trains.
He said: “These figures are no surprise to us but they just absolutely endorse what we have been saying during this dispute, that there is a level of anti-social behaviour on the network.
“This is why we need a second person on our trains – if you remove that second person, then these figures will go through the roof.”
He added: “The public know this and so do we – now it is time for the politicians and Merseyrail to move away from this calamitous road they have set off on towards removing the guards.”