The end of October saw a targeted operation on Manchester Metrolink’s Bury line to help tackle crime and anti-social behaviour on the network and to increase passenger confidence following a number of high-profile incidents in recent weeks. Staff from the TravelSafe Partnership were on hand to engage with passengers and to offer safe travel advice to around 600 passengers during the evening of Monday 25th October between Bury and Whitefield stops.
During the operation – which saw Greater Manchester Police officers from the Bury North Neighbourhood Policing Team join up with colleagues from KeolisAmey Metrolink – two arrests were made and 55 penalty fares were issued. The arrests made were a man arrested for immigration offences at Bury and another man wanted on warrant arrested at Radcliffe.
Alex Cropper, Interim Head of Operations at TfGM, said: “TfGM takes the safety of passengers very seriously, with anti-social behaviour and fare evasion often going hand-in-hand, so we are working closely with GMP, local authorities and KAM through the TravelSafe partnership to tackle these issues together. We will continue to deploy TravelSafe teams across hot-spot areas as part of our programme of specialist operations in partnership with the GMP Transport Unit and district policing teams.”
This operation was part of an ongoing intelligence-led campaign of TravelSafe interventions across the transport networks in the region and was part of a wider response to an incident at Radcliffe Metrolink stop on Sunday 10th October along with reports of youth-related anti-social behaviour on the Bury line.
Chief Inspector Jamie Collins, Greater Manchester Police’s Bury Neighbourhood team, commented: “I am keen to reassure our local communities their voices are heard; we have listened to concerns and this activity demonstrates how we are working with partners to continue to tackle ASB, and proactively target those involved. We will continue to have extra police officers deployed with our TFGM partners on the Metrolink line, as this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated. We acknowledge the distress it is causing, and we will continue to take robust action against those responsible.”