Fun at Chatham Railway Station

[parkender102]

Saw 2 instances of Unsocial Behaviour on South West Trains between Farnborough and London Waterloo this week. Wednesday there were 2 teenagers pacing up and down a train looking shifty - eyeing up everyone's belongings and generally being annoying and complaining of someone being racist (they were from the travelling fraternity). At Clapham Junction they disembarked onto the platform (they now numbered 7) only for all of them to be collared by Station Security staff - I was very impressed. The staff managed to have 2 people restraining each teenager. Not sure what the others had been up to but the Train Manager must have radioed ahead.
Last night a guy got on at Farnborough with headphones on singing/rapping loudly to himself along to the (obscenity ridden) lyrics he was listening to. Moving around the train and shouting angrily at his reflection - quite disturbing really - he was either on drugs or mentally ill. Guard dealt with it very well and told him to pipe down as no-one wanted to here what he was singing/shouting. He ignored him and carry on. Luckily he got off at Woking so everyone continued their journey in peace.

 

[Joe Paxton]

There’s only one way to deal with people like her.

Which is?

A good hosing down with ice-cold water wouldn’t go amiss either.

Yes I was thinking more this, as well as being carted off to the nick for the night.

And then being in court.

I don't think that a night in the nick and a court appearance, by themselves, necessarily does end up "deal[ing]with people like her", at least not on a more holistic level.

 

[tsr]

Saw 2 instances of Unsocial Behaviour on South West Trains between Farnborough and London Waterloo this week. Wednesday there were 2 teenagers pacing up and down a train looking shifty - eyeing up everyone's belongings and generally being annoying and complaining of someone being racist (they were from the travelling fraternity). At Clapham Junction they disembarked onto the platform (they now numbered 7) only for all of them to be collared by Station Security staff - I was very impressed. The staff managed to have 2 people restraining each teenager. Not sure what the others had been up to but the Train Manager must have radioed ahead.
Last night a guy got on at Farnborough with headphones on singing/rapping loudly to himself along to the (obscenity ridden) lyrics he was listening to. Moving around the train and shouting angrily at his reflection - quite disturbing really - he was either on drugs or mentally ill. Guard dealt with it very well and told him to pipe down as no-one wanted to here what he was singing/shouting. He ignored him and carry on. Luckily he got off at Woking so everyone continued their journey in peace.

Onboard antisocial behaviour definitely seems to be getting worse on routes in and out of the south of London, much like the current spate of graffiti (even LO are running around with a couple of units in service which have got hit badly!). Obviously there are spates of organised criminality which crop up onboard trains, such as "tissue begging", but even without any of those, many of the things I'm seeing and the reports I'm hearing are that passenger behaviour has rapidly become more irritating or even disturbing in the last month or two.

I have been assured that BTP are trying to combat identified target groups and that there are various TOC teams which are being set up specifically to tackle antisocial behaviour, but the facts of the case are that there are not enough dedicated staff for patrolling trains, and those who are can quite easily be redeployed to other things, without any immediate correlations being obvious against the running of train services (and the costs thereof...).

 

[hexagon789]

I don't think that a night in the nick and a court appearance, by themselves, necessarily does end up "deal[ing]with people like her", at least not on a more holistic level.

With certain people, not even a long jail term has much effect.

 

[theageofthetra]

Onboard antisocial behaviour definitely seems to be getting worse on routes in and out of the south of London, much like the current spate of graffiti (even LO are running around with a couple of units in service which have got hit badly!). Obviously there are spates of organised criminality which crop up onboard trains, such as "tissue begging", but even without any of those, many of the things I'm seeing and the reports I'm hearing are that passenger behaviour has rapidly become more irritating or even disturbing in the last month or two.

I have been assured that BTP are trying to combat identified target groups and that there are various TOC teams which are being set up specifically to tackle antisocial behaviour, but the facts of the case are that there are not enough dedicated staff for patrolling trains, and those who are can quite easily be redeployed to other things, without any immediate correlations being obvious against the running of train services (and the costs thereof...).

Can those who give to these organised professional beggars be charged under a railway bylaw? They are as much the problem as those who infest our trains with their criminal activity.

 

[AlterEgo]

Can those who give to these organised professional beggars be charged under a railway bylaw? They are as much the problem as those who infest our trains with their criminal activity.

I've noticed a recent increase of the tissue beggars in and around London, which are exclusively eastern European people with no understanding of English. There were loads a few years ago, then the practice started to die out, now they're back with a vengeance.

 

[tsr]

Can those who give to these organised professional beggars be charged under a railway bylaw? They are as much the problem as those who infest our trains with their criminal activity.

I'm not sure that's the solution. The BTP opinion would be that education instead of criminalisation would be the answer to people's gullibility (which is usually what it is).

The beggars rarely have success with more than one or two people in the busier of train coaches. 1 in 60-80 people, for example, is a high number of people to criminalise, but targeted information would be, I think, a better way to reach them.

I've noticed a recent increase of the tissue beggars in and around London, which are exclusively eastern European people with no understanding of English. There were loads a few years ago, then the practice started to die out, now they're back with a vengeance.

It is definitely cropping up again (after being culled a year or two by various prosecutions, many of which were a tad under-the-radar). I haven't noticed as much of it this time round, but it's definitely happening.

 

[PakRail]

Is there staff at Chavtham at that time?

 

[t_star2001uk]

Is there staff at Chavtham at that time?

There was...

 

[Antman]

Is there staff at Chavtham at that time?

I'm pretty sure there is some staff presence all the time although ticket gates are often left open and unstaffed.