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CRIME PREVENTION & PASSENGER SAFETY


Dry evenings


Chief Superintendent Ellie Bird, area commander for BTP Scotland, and ScotRail’s managing director Steve Montgomery discuss the recent ban on alcohol after 9pm and its intended effect on passenger and staff safety.


W


ith an increasing number of trains being delayed due to anti-social behaviour and


at least one accident a week caused by excessive alcohol on Scotland’s trains, something had to be done.


Consumption of alcohol is already banned during major football matches, and passenger feedback suggests that anti-social behaviour arising from an excess of alcohol can damage their perception of rail travel.


In response, ScotRail has introduced a ban on consumption of alcohol after 9pm on all services apart from the Caledonian Sleeper. Passengers who refuse to stop drinking, or who are so drunk they are not fi t to travel, will be escorted off the train by British Transport Police (BTP) Scotland offi cers.


Trains with catering services selling alcohol will stop sales at 8.30pm and passengers who have bought drinks will be advised to drink up before the curfew comes into place.


The ban offi cially came into force on July 20, following a four-week campaign to raise awareness of the change. The fi rst fortnight took a ‘softly, softly’ approach and the project comes into force after a year-long review into customer perceptions of travel.


The common denominator


RTM spoke to BTP area commander, Chief Superintendent Ellie Bird, and ScotRail’s managing director Steve Montgomery about the scheme and the importance of preventing low-level crime that can often be incited by excess alcohol.


The ban aims to tackle anti-social behaviour on trains, which is important as this affects more people than headline-grabbing violent crime. Over the last four or fi ve years, Bird described “considerable” reductions in crime such as serious violence and sexual offences. But whilst these incidents are deplorable, they do not affect as large a proportion of passengers as low-level crime and anti-social behaviour does, especially when alcohol is involved.


A number of staff assaults are also alcohol-related, so the ban will provide protection for everyone travelling via ScotRail.


Bird said: “We’ve had a real focus over the last two years around tackling sectarian, football-related offences and often we see alcohol is a theme within that as well.”


Alcohol seemed to be the “common denominator”. To this end, BTP Scotland and ScotRail worked together to plan how this could be tackled.


A courageous step forward


In terms of the practicalities of the ban, the legal precedent and basis upon which the BTP will act already exists within the Railway Byelaws.


Bird explained: “We’ve always endeavoured to use powers that already exist, things like dry trains.


“ScotRail have been obviously keen to take what I think is a courageous step forward, which is really good and obviously we’ve been talking and planning over the last few months over how we would support them in the implementation.”


She described the efforts ScotRail expended to provide passengers with clear communication


106 | rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 12


about what was going to happen and when, to raise awareness of the scheme. The ban followed a four-week campaign complete with posters, fl yers and additional publicity to ensure passengers understood the plans.


“This is never about criminalising people,” Bird said, and added: “That’s why it’s been important to plan this carefully, think it through, do a proper campaign, make sure that we reinforce it and hopefully the success is that we haven’t had staff assaulted, if passengers feel safe.”


Common sense


One challenge with protecting passengers from low-level crime is that it becomes more diffi cult to implement, as whether an offence has even been committed could be subjective.


Bird acknowledged this diffi culty and said: “I think we’ve been absolutely clear right from the start on whether someone can travel or not and the conditions of travel; that is very


much the responsibility of the train operator and our role is to support them.


“We don’t suddenly take over ‘policing’ of who is allowed to get on a train, because that is an agreement between the train operator and the passenger.”


“Discretion and common sense is absolutely key throughout all of this,” she continued. “This is not about suddenly delaying all the services because we stopped the train because somebody’s drinking alcohol.”


The new approach is very much based on assessment of behaviour, with staff expected to decide on a proportional course of action.


ScotRail agreed that common sense will be applied when enforcing the ban and reiterated that it’s not aimed at passengers who happen to have bought a bottle of wine to take back home. The operator has informed passengers who have bought alcohol to pack it away and keep it out of sight.


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