In August alone, on the train network, Auckland Transport reported 23 assaults, 58 cases of disorderly behaviour, and nine robberies or thefts — the most since available records began in January 2022.
That coincided with a spate of incidents on Auckland’s bus network, including a racially motivated attack on a teenage boy, racial confrontations, the mugging of passengers, and last week’s fatal stabbing.
Drivers themselves have also been regularly targeted in recent months, including a beating, an alleged racially charged assault, a neck-slashing and a wrench attack.
AT reported 33 attacks on bus drivers in the first half of this year, including an unprovoked attack in Ponsonby — up from 30 in the second half of last year, and 21 in the first half of last year.
First Union recently came to the defence of a bus driver, who was criticised by Transport Minister Simeon Brown for not intervening in an attack on a teenager, saying drivers aren’t paid or appropriately trained to intervene.
National Transport Logistics Organiser Neil Chapman said the union was keen to work with the Government and transport agencies on solutions to the raft of issues drivers are faced with, from people brandishing weapons to racial abuse.
“We had a case recently. The driver was on a break, just waiting to start his route, and saw a couple of young people painting graffiti on the side of the bus. He got off the bus and started filming them on his phone. Next minute, he’s been assaulted and has ended up in hospital,” Chapman 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 an campaign to encourage passengers to be “active bystanders”.
But Public Transport Director Stacey van der Putten said it has a “limited pool of people” and “no amount of different initiatives” would fix deep societal issues.
“Ultimately, public transport is an honest reflection of the communities it serves. We need to look at why these issues are occurring in the first place,” van der Putten said.
The Government is increasing police patrols on public transport and may make offences against public transport users an aggravated factor at sentencing, but Police Minster Mark Mitchell said there are “deep intergenerational problems” at play.
“For some reason, in this society, some people have taken it upon themselves that they can work in a way that is not acceptable, whether that be verbal or physical assaults,” Mitchell said.
Simeon Brown has echoed Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s calls for a faster roll-out of Perspex screens to protect drivers, but insists it is still safe to catch public transport.
“Whether you’re walking down a street, going on a bus or a train, you deserve to feel safe.
“It’s really important we now work across Auckland to make sure we are restoring public confidence for Aucklanders to use public transport,” Brown said.
Public Transport Users’ Association National Co-ordinator Jon Reeves said having uniformed and non-uniformed police randomly turning up on public transport is the only way to ensure passengers are safe and feel safe.
“There are social issues that have spread into public transport. Obviously it came to a head last week, but we do have issues across the network,” Reeves said.
“Other countries put police on buses — Switzerland, France, United Kingdom, Germany — and we need to do it too.”
