Assaults on staff

[igelkotten]

Things have, yet again, taken a turn for the worse here in Stockholm.

A few days ago, a driver got into an argument with a passenger when he advised the passenger of the indesirability of said passenger urinating at the crew relief point at Gullmarsplan.

The night before yesterday, the same driver was walking from the Högdalen depot up to the tube station and bus terminal in Högdalen itself, late at night, on his way home. Suddenly, he was assaulted without any provocation whatsoever by a man he met onthe street. It turned out that the man was the very one who had been pi$$ing on the platform the day before, and now he was waving a knife about and screaming about he was going to finish the driver once and for all.

My colleague got stabbed, though thankfully only a glancing blow, delivered a quick knee to the groin of the assailant and then ran like a soaped piglet away from there. Understandably, he isn't exactly feeling great at the moment.

Yesterday evening, a second driver on her way home from the depot was jumped by the same person, but fortunately, she managed to get away unhurt.

From this afternoon onwards, all drivers walking from the depot are to be escorted by security guards, and guards are also patrolling the road from the depot to the station and bus terminal. At least for a few days, at least -the cynic in me doesn't really have any illusions about what our beloved company will do once the costs starts to mount.

This is I'm breaking the rules with a naughty word insane. I can't really use any other words to describe it. We actually have a lunatic with a hate-on for tube uniforms running around wanting to stab anyone in a uniform. Do we really have to start lobbying for kevlar vests to become a part of our uniform?

Oh, and the official response form the powers that be is silence: The latest internal message extols the glorious new system of "mystery shoppers" brought in to report on staff and their "customer friendliness attitude". Not one word about the stabbed driver, or anyone else of the staff who has been assaulted these last seven days -about five, all in all. That's a comfort.

To say that I am disgusted is to put it mildly.

[Tom]

Igelkotten has also communicated this to me by e-mail, my reply is reproduced here as I can't really add anything else:

Interesting and extremely disturbing. There is now a mad knife-carrying punter out there looking to bump train staff off because one of them told him not to pi$$ on the platform?

I despair. I would try and expand but I don't think I can find the words to do so. What sort of mentality drives someone to start attacking drivers at random like that? I can't even begin to comprehend the fear that must be going through people's minds right now.

Having done the walk from the depot once and spent time at Högdalen, often late at night, waiting for trains, it shocks and scares me in equal quantities that somewhere like that, which I know and have spent many enjoyable hours photographing trains is now a virtual no-go area for railway staff.

On a slightly different note, the driver who has been stabbed isn't anyone I know is it? Regardless, can you
pass on my best wishes for their speedy recovery, and I hope the situation improves rapidly with the assailant caught and dealt with.

[Deleted]

I hope all ends well. In London we forget that that the problem with abusive and antisocial passengers are an international thing, Igelkotten's shows that we are not alone with these problems.

[Admin Team]

Well said Jim - it's very easy for us to imagine that we're the only ones that encounter this sort of behaviour.

Igelkotten, I think I can speak for all of the staff of London Underground here - please pass on the the best wishes of all of us to your colleague for a complete and speedy recovery from this shocking and horrible incident.

Ah - 'Mystery Shoppers'. That *really* helps doesn't it....

[Colin]

I wholeheartedly agree with every word Tom, Jim and Dave has said. Best wishes to you and all your colleauges.