Merseyrail – Yes staff are right to stop people who are too intoxicated getting on trains

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/merseyrail-staff-punched-grabbed-moorfields-13809426

The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see link above

We have probably all been on trains or buses when there’s someone nearby who has had a little to much of the falling down water. Most of the time they are harmless but some are far from that.

I applaud Merseyrail for trying to identify those who are simply not fit to travel because they are a danger to themselves and everyone else on the train. The fact that in this story a drunk got violent, sadly injuring Merseyrail staff, kind of makes my point i.e. he was obviously unfit to travel. Clearly he needs tracking down and charging with assault, maybe that will sober him up!

As an aside I once got a train back from Liverpool to Maghull late in an evening and had a happy drunk sat not so far away from me. He entertained us all by trying to eat chips when he could not easily work out where his mouth was nor could be stay awake between the chips that did find his mouth.

Alcohol on Trains – And what about Merseyrail Guard McGee?

A recent TV programme on Channel 5 that ran for a number of weeks followed First Great Western staff around as they tried to keep their trains running on time and smoothly despite all kinds of challenges.

But what struck me was the number of times that drunks were a part of their everyday working scene. I have mentioned recently my concerns about our booze dependent culture but here it was laid out before us on prime time TV.

The obvious question that kept coming into my mind was why does First Great Western allow such badly drunken folk onto their trains to create mayhem for their staff and their sober passengers? Indeed, why would any train operator allow this?

And this takes me back to a matter I blogged about some time (21st December 2012) ago when a Merseyrail train guard was jailed for the death of a badly drunken young lady who tragically fell under a train when it left a Merseyrail station. I said at the time that the conviction was wrong and that in my opinion the unfortunate young lady was surely substantially responsible for the situation that she inadvertently put herself in. My views have not changed and I still feel for Christopher McGee the guard who found himself in an impossible situation and was effectively blamed by society through the courts because one of his passengers was acting in a way that was clearly dangerous to her own health and wellbeing.

After watching the Channel 5 programme all I can say is that such a tragedy is going to happen again if train operators and British Transport Police continue to turn a blind eye to those who are dangerously drunk – they should not even be on the station in the first place never mind near a train. A recent Alan Williams article in Modern Railways Magazaine makes this very point very well.

But there is another aspect here and that is the sober passenger. Do train operators think that letting drunks onto their trains is treating the vast majority of the travelling public well? If they do they are in effect knowingly allowing drunks to spoil the journeys of the vast majority of their customers.

McGee was blamed because someone else got drunk – that’s not justice.