[Greens-Media] Connex Failing on Passenger Safety

[Elizabeth.Ingham at parliament.vic.gov.au]

CONNEX FAILING ON PASSENGER SAFETY

Greens MLC Colleen Hartland attempted to intervene in a violent incident 
at Footscray Station last night (Monday 18/8), only to find Connex's 
emergency red button didn't work.

"I was at Footscray station last night (Monday 18/6/07) on my way to a 
Refugee Week function at Yarraville.  I was watching a group of about 10 
teenage boys pretending to beat each other up and generally skylarking. 
That was fine, but it was when one of the boys dangled a smaller boy over 
the edge of the platform with a train approaching, I felt I had to 
intervene. I shouted at him not to be so stupid, and did he think about 
what he was doing."

"The boys just swore at me and continued their behaviour when they got on 
the train, so I pressed the emergency response button on the platform. 
There was no response."

"I was there for another ten minutes, as my train was delayed as usual, 
but there was no response."

"The boys probably thought I was a joyless old biddy, but what if they 
slipped and their mate fell in front of the train?  How would they face 
that boy's family or the driver of the train?"

"The more disturbing part of this was that there was no response to the 
emergency button.  Not only are the trains late and so overcrowded that 
they're a health risk, but the emergency measures aren't up to scratch."

"I called the Connex feedback line last night, and I wrote to the Minister 
and the CEO of Connex this morning.  I will raise the matter in Parliament 
this week." 

"I will continue to use public transport, and will continue to advocate 
for it to run as it should - on time and safely."

For further information:

Colleen Hartland: 9651 8788 / 0417 445 845

***************************************************************************

Liz Ingham
Office of Colleen Hartland MLC
9651 8413 / 0400 043 881
Parliament of Victoria Notice: 

The information contained in this email  including any attachments, may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Any unauthorised disclosure, copying or dissemination of all or part of this email, including any attachments, is not permitted. This email, including any attachments, should be dealt with in accordance with copyright and  privacy legislation. Except where otherwise stated, views expressed are those of the individual sender.