Southern Queensland commuters will see an increased presence of transit officers on board buses and trains over Christmas and New Year
December 2, 2011
A new group of highly-trained transit officers will be deployed on south-east Queensland’s public transport network over the Christmas and New Year period.
Queensland Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk says 13 new graduate network officers will take the security force to 33, which is in addition to several uniformed and plain clothes police patrolling the network over December and January.
Each transit officer has the power to detain, search and remove particular items from customers, and will patrol buses, trains and ferries across the region.
“The new graduates are a welcome addition and are joining the team just in time for the busy Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations,” Palaszczuk says.
“New Year’s Eve is by far the busiest night on the TransLink network with more than half a million people expected to be catching public transport.”
Palaszczuk says staff would also monitor more than 7,000 CCTV cameras located around the network at train, busway and ferry stations and on bus and train services.
“It’s imperative we keep our commuters safe and staff will be monitoring our CCTV network around the clock.”
Other safety initiatives include monitored manual help and emergency points at various locations across the TransLink network, including train and busway stations.
“We want people to enjoy themselves but that can’t be at the expense of other passengers’ safety and comfort,” Palaszczuk says.
“That’s why we will crackdown on any antisocial behaviour on our transport network.”