Dublin Bus driver Suzanne Armstrong spoke of being terrified when she drove over ramps and drugs spilled onto the floor of a bus in Finglas as a group of addicts sat upstairs.
“They would have been roaring and shouting when it happened,” she said. “I don’t know whether it was coke or heroin.
“I thought at one point they were going to kill me. I was petrified. One guy came down the stairs and put his hand down the back of his trousers and I was convinced he was pulling a weapon.
“Thankfully, he didn’t but I was verbally abused.
“Recently, one guy got on a colleague’s bus and hit someone across the face for no reason. You really have no idea what you’re up against.”
She was speaking in Liberty Hall, where Siptu unveiled a proposal for a public transport police at a cost of €10m to €12.5m yesterday.
It wants a pilot scheme set up. It would have 125 officers with powers of arrest and detention, based in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. The force would be similar to the Airport Police. ‘Authorised officers’ and transport ‘assistance units’ with trained social care intervention officers would deal with public disturbances. The union estimates that a unit with 150 employees would need a budget of nearly €16m, assuming an average wage of €50,000 a year and €20,000 per employee in employers’ PRSI and benefits.
Adrian Kane, Siptu transport, energy, aviation and construction divisional organiser, said a similar amount is already being spent on private security firms to police the network.
Luas ticket inspector Kabir Alade told how he was attacked by four people near Busáras in Dublin when he was alerted to anti-social behaviour and drinking on a tram.
“So I got called into the situation…I was vigorously attacked by them and I got cut on my hand with a Stanley knife,” he said.
“You know, it was the worst experience I’ve ever come across on the Luas. That was absolutely scary for me.”
He said he was lucky there was a rapid garda response. He did not want to quit his job but admits it has got to a point where he felt it was getting “too much”.
“It’s very difficult going to work and to have to deal with all this,” he said.
Siptu officials claimed incidents of abuse and violence on the public transport network are increasing.
Mr Kane said the union plans to make the creation of a transport police force an election issue. He claimed the Green Party is the only party that has not given the proposal its backing.
In a foreword to a Siptu ‘Travel Safe ‘ policy proposal document, he says worker and passenger security on public transport is impacted by issues including fare evasion, trespassing, anti-social behaviour, sexual harassment and abuse, drug use and maintaining public order during large movements of people to prevent terrorism.
John Murphy, Siptu transport sector organiser, said the proposed police force could be cost neutral to the exchequer in the longer term due to an increase in transport use if the network is safer and savings on policing and private security measures.
