Late night train crews at risk

Security is being beefed up on late night Auckland passenger trains into an effort to stop attacks on crew.

The move by Veolia Transport comes after Rail and Maritime Transport Union threatened a stopwork which would have halted trains yesterday afternoon if no action was taken.

It followed a number of attacks on train staff in the past year, the latest of which was on Tuesday night, where a female train manager was assaulted and robbed by two people at a suburban station.

After a meeting with union officials yesterday morning, Veolia said Maori wardens had been asked to start an hour earlier at 7pm to ensure no gaps in security cover when ticket collectors finished work for the night.

- NZPA