Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown concerned by new figures on public transport incidents

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown says bus drivers are facing threats from people refusing to pay fares. Photo / Dean Purcell

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is concerned but not surprised by new figures on the number of security and emergency incidents on buses and trains.

The data — released to Newstalk ZB under the Local Government Official Information Act — shows, in the year to August, Auckland Transport was dealing with more than 83 security incidents a week on trains.

In the month of August alone, there were 23 assaults, 58 cases of disorderly behaviour and nine robberies or thefts reported on the train network — the most since available records began in January 2022.

Emergency services were notified of more than nine incidents a week on buses and more than two incidents a week on ferries.

When the numbers were put to Brown on today’s The Front Page podcast, he said they were “really bad” and sadly reflected what was going on in wider society.

“We’ve had people shot in Ponsonby of all places. We’ve got people going into supermarkets and trying to walk out without paying for food,” Brown said.

“There’s an enormous number of children who weren’t at school last term. They’re not going to grow up to be doctors or engineers.”

Auckland’s bus network has seen a spate of incidents recently, including an attack on a teenager, racial confrontations, the mugging of passengers, a beating, an alleged assault, a neck-slashing, a wrench attack and last week’s fatal stabbing.

Brown said drivers are regularly facing abuse.

“We’ve got lots and lots of people [who] catch the bus and tell the driver to stuff off, you know, ‘I’m going to bash you, I’m not paying’. It’s not good,” Brown said.

AT has a raft of safety measures in place, including CCTV cameras, transport officers, driver training, GPS tracking and panic buttons that record sound, and is working on a campaign to encourage passengers to be “active bystanders”.

The Government is increasing police patrols on public transport and may make offences against public transport users an aggravated factor at sentencing.

Brown said the Government was doing its best to address safety concerns, but there was still work to do.

“I’ve just been to Sao Paulo and they took me round in an armoured Range Rover with bulletproof windows. We haven’t got that bad. It is a safe city but it is not as safe as I would like it to be,” Brown said.