Irish Rail responded to more than 170 incidents of anti-social behaviour in the first quarter of this year including assaults and theft.
The rail operator said between January and March, there had been 92 cases of aggressive behaviour, nearly 27% more than at the same time last year. There were also 27 cases of assault, another 27 instances of fighting and passenger disturbance and six reports of lewd behaviour.
There were 21 incidents of theft of third-party property, Irish Rail’s latest bulletin on customer safety and security revealed. Of the violent incidents recorded, two of them were on employees of the railway service or their contractors.
There were also 221 anti-social behaviour incidents that were categorised as non-reportable, a fall of around 12% since last year. These incidents included 52 cases of boisterous behaviour, 24 of cycling or skateboarding in a dangerous fashion, and 33 cases of loitering.
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Also logged by Irish Rail were 16 incidents involving misuse of passenger emergency systems, 58 of criminal damage or vandalism, and three cases of theft of company property. There were 315 incidents involving use of drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes where smoking was not allowed, up 25% on this time in 2022.
Irish Rail listed 88 cases of smoking on train services or other places it was prohibited and 87 incidents of consumption of alcohol where it was barred.
Irish Rail said: “While anti-social behaviour is a societal issue, and the overwhelming majority of journeys occur without incident, we must ensure that we are providing the safest possible travelling and working environment for customers and employees respectively.”
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