Irish Rail records over 170 incidents of anti-social behaviour

Aggressive behaviour has been on the rise including assault and theft on Irish Rail trains this year

• Bookmar

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.