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CRIME FIGHTING measures on public transport have been beefed up after politicians today (Thursday) approved a raft of planned improvements. Members of the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority (PTA) met to consider a major report on the issue of crime and anti-social behaviour on public transport by Director General of Nexus, Mike Parker. Mr Parker’s report set out a raft of measures aimed at improving the personal safety and security of public transport users. The PTA approved Mr Parker’s “service improvement plan”, which aims to tackle a wide range of factors affecting people’s experience and perception of public transport. Although incidents of serious crime are rare on public transport, Mr Parker’s report acknowledged that problems like criminal damage and anti-social behaviour colour people’s perception of travelling by public transport. The result, Mr Parker noted, is that “people’s perceptions of public transport, especially at night, are not good.” Extensive research has found that existing and potential public transport users are concerned with the whole journey, including walking to and from bus stops, interchanges, ferry landings and Metro stations. But the Nexus Director General says his report will “beef up” the security measures already in place as well as adding new ones. Among the measures, Mr Parker plans the creation of centralised database of incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour to maximise the benefits of the partnership working relationship Nexus has with local authorities, commercial public transport operators and the police. Also, for the first time, the report introduces targets, to be set by 2005, to measure the success of the anti-crime measures Nexus will introduce. The report, which set out a picture of crime and anti-social behaviour on the Tyne and Wear public transport network, also called on politicians to back an increase in the resources that allow the sharing of information and intelligence between partners involved in crime-fighting. It also explained how Nexus will work with local authorities to improve street lighting on approaches to public transport facilities, and how Nexus will work with the police to better target any stations and interchanges where youths gather. But the report also set out how passengers themselves can help Nexus and their partners help them. The report told PTA members that Nexus plans to encourage public transport users to report any incident they see, no matter how minor it may seem, so that Nexus and its partners can build up an accurate picture of criminal activity that will help them tackle it better. Mr Parker told PTA members of plans to introduce a telephone and text message number that will let people easily and discretely report incidents. The number will be prominently displayed at stations and interchanges and dedicated staff will monitor the number and immediately pass on information to the police. Other measures include the deployment of dedicated Travel Support Officers at key interchanges, and on Metro trains. More Metro trains will also be equipped with CCTV, with plans to add the facility to 20 trains by March 2005 at a cost of £90,000. Nexus also says it aspires to eventually equip all Metro trains with CCTV and will seek to identify funding to do so. Introducing his report to PTA members, Mr Parker said: “The findings of this report tell us what we know already; that people’s perceptions of public transport, especially at night, are not good.
“Areas of concern are waiting areas, approaches to stations and on board trains. “It’s worth pointing out that incidents of serious crime on public transport are rare and what we deal with is criminal damage, graffiti and low level anti social behaviour. “We are combating these problems by beefing up our CCTV and evidence gathering; adding Travel Support Officers to the system at night; as well as working with the Local Authorities to improve lighting on the approaches to stations. “New initiatives include Alcohol Exclusion Zones across Metro where the police now have powers to swoop on offenders and increased CCTV on trains and buses as well as more people staffing the system at night. “We have not yet set the targets mentioned in the report but they will tackle the above concerns and be formalised in March 2005. “Some good wins in the fight against crime this year have been 249 reported CCTV incidents resulting in 186 arrests and thousands of Losers dealt with in the courts thanks to regular fare evasion blitzes.”
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