More than 600 anti-social behaviour incidents on bus and rail services

Irish Rail said there were over 400 incidents of anti-social behaviour in 2022 — a rise of 3% on the year before.

There were over 600 incidents of anti-social behaviour reported across Irish Rail and Bus Éireann services last year, which such incidents having a “disproportionately negative impact” on staff and passengers.

The annual reports for both travel companies offer details on the work being done to combat anti-social behaviour on its services, with such incidents rising by 3% last year on Irish Rail.

It said there were well over 400 such incidents in 2022.

It said the situation is being monitored and “considerable resources” have been put in place to try to counteract “this worrying issue”.

“A new monitoring group has been put in place, led by IÉ Chief Security Office and a number of Rapid Garda Response Hubs are now operational to assist in the event of passenger issues escalating,” it said.

“These hubs, in conjunction with our dedicated security control centre, allow IÉ (Iarnród Éireann) staff to liaise directly with An Gárda Siochána to tackle incidents of antisocial behaviour. The internal reporting structure for antisocial behaviour incidents has changed since 2020 and it facilitates the close monitoring of such incidents.” 

Increased reporting

Given the increase of anti-social behaviour incidents in the face of these measures, Irish Rail added that it may be attributed to an “increased level of reporting” and the “increase initiatives” it has rolled out.

It comes after it emerged late last month that Irish Rail responded to more than 170 serious incidents of anti-social behaviour on its service in the first quarter of this year including assaults, lewd behaviour, and theft.

Bus Éireann, meanwhile, said that part of its improvement projects last year involved improving security at stations and CCTV on board.

“We broadened our reporting of anti-social behaviour incidents,” it said. “In 2022, we had 223.

“While this is a very small number in relation to total passenger journeys, they can have a disproportionately negative impact on employees and on the customer experience and we continue to work with partners and communities to mitigate and address such incidents.” 

The Government has previously ruled out the introduction of a dedicated public transport unit of An Garda Síochána, such as exists in other jurisdictions.

The figures also show there was a 75% increase in the number of customer and third-party accidents on Irish Rail services last year, up from 182 to 319.

“While this may be attributable to the increase in passenger journey numbers post Covid, the number of incidents per million train passenger journeys is continuing a downward trend with a reduction of 15% on 2021,” it said.

Alongside that, Irish Rail said that the number of level crossing near misses was up slightly last year but bridge strikes were down as the “number of serious or potentially serious incidents has decreased”.