I see the York Press have published an article today
York becoming "no go area" on Saturdays, say city leaders - licensees called to crunch talks - visiting hordes from South Yorkshire and North East blamed of particular note is this:
There is a meeting on 23 June to discuss the issue.
Anyone who is in any doubt as to how bad the problem has become, should witness the behaviour of some of the passengers boarding Saturday evening trains which call at Doncaster, Eaglescliffe and Thornaby in particular.
York is getting steadily worse again in my opinion.
In terms of controlling passenger flow on the station, managing the PTI and all the other 'stuff' then it's generally very well controlled - but in terms of passenger experience for the 'normals' and the drain on TOC and BTP resources it's untrue.
BTP tonight had 1 Sergeant and 9 PCs on the station, there were 20 TOC security staff from VTEC, TPE and GC plus three additional TOC managers and the normal station staff.
The main 'problem' destinations seem to be Doncaster, Hartlepool, Thornaby, Middlesborough, and to a lesser extent, Newcastle.
xx16 Midlesborough services after 1800 get progressively worse.
Doncaster-bound services after 1930 tend to get very busy.
The final GC Sunderland at 2101 is also very well patronised.
A lot of work has gone into managing the PTI, but as I mention above this is resource-intensive and I don't think many people realise how stressful this situation can be for TOC staff - the Liverpool incident is certainly never far from my mind. Despite this, there is only so much that can be done to control several hundred dunks - unpredictable by nature - who ideally would be nowhere near several hundred tonnes of moving train.
I really hope this meeting makes some difference, as the issue is with the license holders, and society as a whole. I like a drink, but don't for a moment think it is acceptable to go out to get absolutely legless, swear, fight, urinate and act up in the street, with no apparent consciousness of what's going on around me.
Dry trains don't really work - on an evening York's layout makes it tricky to enforce, but this is largely successful, and on a morning it is totally impractical to target all outlying stations, in much the same way that enforcing "unfit to be on the railway" is difficult due to sheer volume and the strains on BTP resources.
It is unfair that the railway should be left carrying the can for a nationwide problem, and for license holders blatantly serving intoxicated persons to the point they can barely walk. For the pubs this is a quick buck, but for the TOCs revenue protection, security, delay minutes and increased resourcing means this is a massive pain that must be controlled.
Thankfully due to cross-TOC co-operation and the support of the BTP we make sure everyone gets home safely on a Saturday night, but this can't go on.
Roll on the remainder of summer and the bulk of the racing calendar :roll:
Is this really in the a.m. ? Goodness me, I am living a sheltered life it would appear.:roll:
On occasion the inward services are made 'dry', but this is done on a rolling basis (Scarborough/Malton etc.) were targeted the other week.
It is not practical to resource this every week, and TOCs should not have to deal with these sort of problems. It's a cross between babysitting and social work - except you get a lot more abuse, and run a much greater chance of getting assaulted trying to protect the drunks from their own stupidity, and the rest of the travelling public going about their business.
The xx28 Middlesborough services from 0928 to 1328 are almost consistently full and standing ex-Thornaby. The two Up GCs from Sunderland in morning/early afternoon are normally full and standing ex-Hartlepool.
The issue is passengers pre-loading to cheapen their day out in York.
Stopping them drinking slows them down a bit, but these folk go out to get drunk, and some go out to cause trouble, and sadly stopping them drinking on a 45min or so train journey does little to reduce the impact of up to 12hrs solid drinking.
