With the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority recently revealing that in the three months between April and June that there have been nine incidents of anti-social behaviour on board Supertram aimed at conductors, they have unveiled a number of measures which they hope will improve on-board safety.
This will include the issuing of body-worn cameras by conductors whilst they are also looking at the possibility of having two conductors on-board some of the busier tram services.
In a new report SYMCA say: “We are aware that the introduction of new handheld ticketing equipment has been a success in enabling conductors to get to all customers even on the busier services. Those customers who may have historically been able to travel without buying a ticket are now being asked to pay and as a consequence the level of confrontation has increased. We have delivered conflict awareness training which has been attended by all of our conductors. Further initiatives planned include the wearing of body cameras by our frontline team.”
The nine incidents mentioned in the report include six verbal, two physical and once an object was thrown by someone who was trying to evade paying their fare.
I don’t think body cams will make any difference at all. Supertram already has CCTV installed (if it works) so there should be plenty of footage available.
What is the conductor supposed to do if someone doesn’t want to pay their fare? I guess the conductor can’t take the fare by force. If the tram continues then the fare-dodger will probably win because he/she will likely arrive where they wanted to go. If the tram stops and doors are held closed (not sure if they can be locked) then the rest of the passengers will likely lynch the conductor for holding them up. It’s not easy being a conductor and I don’t envy them one bit!
What i will say is modern ticket machines really don’t help. They are far slower to use than the old mechanical TIM, Setright and Almex machines used to be.
Perhaps a pay as you exit system might work?