Anti-social behaviour on Cork trains leaving staff afraid to go to work

Drinking, assaults, and drug use on trains are leaving rail staff afraid to go to work, with documentation on anti-social behaviour on trains to and from Cork showing reports of violence and intimidation.

On foot of a Freedom of Information request, Iarnród Éireann provided The Echo with details of 39 complaints from May, 2024, to June this year, in which drinking and shouting on trains were the most common issues mentioned. There were 15 complaints about people drinking on trains; 16 instances of people shouting or being unreasonably loud; six instances of people playing music or videos loudly; and three about people singing.

Verbal abuse was reported 13 times and physical violence six times, with one report of sexual assault. There were six complaints about open drug use; six about people smoking or vaping on a train; while four people also reported theft or attempted theft.

Increasingly concerned

National Bus and Rail Union general secretary Dermot O’Leary told The Echo that staff on trains that would be identifiable to passengers are customer-care staff or train hosts, who are there to provide customer service, and not for security or to put themselves in harm’s way.

“We get a lot of queries from our members about what protections are offered to them as they go about their duties, as they are increasingly concerned in relation to their own safety.

“They’re asking very hard questions of us which we pass onto the company, and the company are spending way beyond what they were a number of years ago on security, but it’s not the panacea.”

Mr O’Leary explained that the NRBU has been campaigning for a dedicated transport police, and that the Programme for Government commits to establishing such a unit with powers of detention and arrest.

Dealing drugs

“While not exactly what we want, it will help to deal with people travelling on trains who think they can act with abandon and face no consequences. Our members see people openly using drugs, they know people are dealing drugs. To be fair, the gardaí have had some success in terms of assaults and people getting drunk, which have now become standard.

“Worryingly, a lot of our members are not always reporting this behaviour because it’s become kind of normalised.”

Mr O’Leary added that he is directly working with the Department of Transport to try and put the security team together, but it will require legislation, saying “it’s fair to say that will take a while”.

Exposed

“In the meantime, our people and people who travel on trains are exposed to, quite frankly, thugs and scumbags. Some people might downplay the amount of instances in relation to passenger journeys, but one instance is too many.

“Our members are at the end of their tether, saying they are afraid to go to work in the morning and there’s certain trains they don’t want to travel on.”

He appealed to Taoiseach Micheál Martin to expedite the legislation required to get security in place, and to reconsider utilising gardaí rather than a separate security force.

The Echo contacted Iarnrod Éireann and An Garda Síochána for comment.