24 October 2008

Dear Colleagues

One very positive trend over the past months and years has been a reduction in antisocial behaviour on our bus and rail services.  Vandalism and attacks have become much less common as a result of the hard work and initiatives of many colleagues and as our society has become more peaceful generally. 

However, like most passenger transport organisations, occasionally we do see increases in unacceptable behaviour at specific locations and we must continue our commitment to stamp this out.  These past weeks on some late night trains on the Larne line our on board colleagues have had to deal with aggression and wholly unacceptable antisocial behaviour. 

We will not tolerate this and are working with the police, local community representatives and trade unions to effectively address the problem.  Our efforts have been greatly helped by the increasing use of CCTV and security on board to make sure individuals causing trouble are identified and prosecuted. 

Also this week in Lurgan a bus was hijacked.  There were no injuries to our colleague driving the bus or passengers but this is the first hijacking in some time and demonstrates the difficulties our colleagues may regrettably encounter from time to time.

You and the public may be assured that we will not tolerate abuses such as these – the safety of our colleagues, our customers and the public are paramount and we will continue to take whatever measures are necessary to keep our services safe and comfortable.

The vast majority of our services are delivered in comfort and safety – that’s why our passenger numbers are increasing; people have confidence in the service we offer.  This confidence is hard earned but well placed – I thank all colleagues for their support while we address this small number of incidents.

Lastly, I know this week you will have correspondence from NILGOSC in relation to pensions.  I will return to this next Friday to give you a bit of background.

Catherine Mason,

Group Chief Executive