Rail passengers in the West Midlands area of the UK will now be able to report antisocial behaviour onboard trains through a text message to the nearest authorities.
Centro, a UK based organisation operating bus, rail and Midland Metro Tram transport in the West Midlands area, has announced that the ‘See Something, Say Something’ scheme, which had earlier been introduced on the West Midlands bus and tram network, has also been launched on the rail network across the West Midlands.
The programme aims to empower commuters to report against any antisocial behaviour onboard trains, in order to help police maintain law and order and crack down on all such behaviour immediately.
British Transport Police member, Sergeant Chris Casey, said, ‘Recorded anti-social behaviour on trains in the Centro region was halved last year, but we know that often passengers don’t report events that disrupt their journeys.
This includes things like people playing music, putting their feet on seats and generally acting in an unacceptable manner. Generally, people often think it’s too minor to call the police for.
However, the text service has delivered great results on buses and we now want rail passengers to let the Safer Travel Police Team know about issues they experience so that we can use that information to target our police patrols and keep antisocial behaviour at a low level.’
Passengers can report an incident happening during their journey by texting ‘bus’, ‘metro’ or ‘rail’ followed by a space, and details of the incident such as time, date, location and route number, and send it to 83010. They may also log in at the www.safertravel.info website and lodge their complaints.
Centro Chairman, Counsellor John McNicholas, said, ‘Crime on the public transport network is at a record low but when anti-social behaviour occurs it can ruin someone’s journey and also lead to an unfounded fear of crime.
Expanding ‘See Something Say Something’ onto the rail network gives passengers the chance to play a key role in helping us tackle any nuisance behaviour and help provide a quiet and relaxing environment for their journey.’
