Anti-social behaviour has been the focus this summer, as police aim to keep Sydney’s public transport network safe this holiday season.
The Police Transport and Public Safety Command (PT&PS) – with the assistance of Sydney Trains – have launched Operation Rampart; a proactive and high-impact operation focussing on reducing crime on the public transport network.
The three-month operation commenced on Monday 27 November 2023 and will run until Friday 16 February 2024 and will specifically target issues such as general anti-social behaviour, assaults, property offences, and buffer riding.
PT&PSC South West Commander, Superintendent Mark Wall, said the operation has been allocated substantial resources as transport safety remains an area of major concern.
“The PT&PS Command and Sydney Trains have entered into an agreement that saw the commencement of both Operation Rampart and the Enhanced Enforcement Program (EEP).
“The EEP provides additional funded shifts designed for officers tasked to patrol the railway lines and particularly target those committing buffer riding offences.
“The message is simple; don’t put your life at risk trying to impress your friends, or with the goal of getting ‘views’ on social media,” Superintendent Mark Wall said.
Transport for NSW Secretary, Josh Murray said “Last year we saw 27 incidents of people ‘buffer riding’ or ‘roof riding’ on our light rail vehicles. This is far from harmless fun, or content for a social media reel – it puts the safety of passengers, staff and the person themselves at serious risk,”
“People who hold onto the light rail while on a bike or scooter are duelling with danger. Despite their name, light rail vehicles weigh a minimum of 40 tonnes when empty, so are anything but light if they make contact with a person, bike, scooter or skateboard.
“Warning signs against buffer riding are installed on light rail vehicles for a reason – people breaking the rules can easily fall and suffer serious injuries or die, and those climbing on the vehicles run high risk of electrocution.”
Sydney Trains Head of Security and Intelligence, Jess Sharpe said “Anti-social behaviour and buffer riding cause huge delays to the rail network preventing passengers from getting to work or home in a timely way. So far this year anti-social behaviour caused, nearly 11-thousand minutes in delays that equates to nearly 8 days’ worth of delays. And incidents of trespassing into the rail corridor have cause 24 days’ worth of delays on the network in the past year.”
“We work closely with the Police Transport Command to target and deter anti-social behaviour as well as criminal behaviour, and provide CCTV footage to help identify any risk takers.”
“We see have seen a rise in buffer riding incidents during the school holidays. Our trains weigh 400 tonnes and travel up to 110km/h. This is an extremely dangerous thing to do. People risk being seriously injured or killed all for a silly thrill. It is not worth it.”
“The impact these stupid acts have on our staff cannot be put into words. They are very traumatic at the very least.”
Anyone with information about Operation Rampart is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report information via NSW Police social media pages.
