Public transport assaults: ‘They’re like animals. I could see a driver being killed’
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On a hot Saturday night last July, Gary Reen was driving his usual bus route between Cork City and Crosshaven, when a crowd of close to 100 people crowded around the vehicle.
“You could see something was going to happen,” the Bus Éireann driver said of the rowdy crowd of kids, teenagers and 20-something-year-olds, who pushed around tourists and elderly locals to get a spot on the bus.
“I was at the stop in Crosshaven and as soon as the door opened, they were piling on,” the Shanakiel local said.
Gary chased after four boys who ran past him and up the stairs of the double-decker, and he followed them to ask them to pay or leave.
He said the offending juvenile was “off his head” and subsequently “caught a young female who was with him and fucked her across the bus”.
While Gary struggled to maintain control of the situation, two security guards sat in their car nearby watching on, he said. Soon two gardaí arrived but were vastly outnumbered by the riled-up crowd eager to get on the bus.
Gary has a hole in his eardrum which is yet to heal. He couldn’t go swimming with his children on holidays for fear of infection, and now wears earplugs in the shower.
After he refused three drunk men onto a bus on near the courthouse on Washington street around Christmas 2021, it took 45 minutes for security on Grand Parade to get to him.
“I [also] waved two Garda cars down and they kept on driving.
“Passengers know nothing is going to happen about it. If there was security on buses and everyone knows about it, people would know to cop on.”
Gary isn’t alone in his experiences — not even close. Transport workers across Ireland consistently speak up about these issues, and feel little is done to protect them and their passengers.
He spoke of a colleague who was “knocked out cold on Grand Parade” after he was hit with a bag of bottles when he refused a man a cigarette. Not late at night or in the early hours of the morning, but at 6pm.
Abuse and assaults on public transport workers across the country are on the rise, according to the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU).
Even on the same 220 bus route where Gary was assaulted, which runs 24 hours a day, a female bus driver was threatened with rape after she asked a group of teenagers to pay the fare.
On Halloween night 2019, Gardaí were unable to control a crowd of up to 80 teenagers — some of which were armed — surrounding Andreea’s* bus for more than 90 minutes.
“Even the saviours can’t save you,” she said of the night when “hell came upon” her and youths made threats “in every single possible bad way that you can imagine”.
The has been told of multiple instances when bus drivers were knocked unconscious after being assaulted in the course of their duties.
Take another Bus Éireann route for example. Stephen Nugent, a driver on a Dublin-Navan service, said it has seen a “sharp increase” in criminal behaviour in the last five years:
Drivers running for their lives, stones thrown at buses, all-too-regular assaults, threats against drivers, a drug user passed out while openly carrying a knife in his hand, kicking doors open to alight at unofficial stops, phones stolen from drivers.
These are just a few examples of incidents in the last 18 months — never mind the fact most incidents are verbal abuse, on an almost daily basis. Stephen, who also sits on the NBRU executive, recently told Justice Minister Helen McEntee:
He echoed calls by his union for purpose-built assault screens on buses, a dedicated transport police, and the establishment of a text service so passengers can immediately report issues to this unit.
Abuse and assaults have also fed into driver absences and ultimately ‘ghost buses’, when scheduled services don’t show up.
In one incident, a Cork-based female train driver moved to a position at a station after receiving abuse in the line of work, and due to the nature of the incident has not returned to driving since.
Originally from Poland, Dublin Bus driver Agnieszka Gaska has always wanted to drive people around. She was delighted to land her “dream job” as a driver in May 2021, but has been put off by antisocial behaviour.
Children as young as five or six can create trouble, but older teenagers tend to cause the most damage.
“They refuse to pay, laugh at you, and walk to seats,” she said.
“One teenager went upstairs and appeared to pleasure himself at a seat where no cameras could see him.”
Agnieszka has had her hair, accent, and body insulted by teenagers when they refuse to pay.
“They know exactly what to say to upset you,” she said.
While she’s never been physically assaulted, there’s been some close calls. Certain areas are known for being dangerous, with teenagers throwing stones at buses.
Around last Halloween, a stone smashed through a window and hit a passenger in the head, causing them to bleed.
Another time, the disabled bay window was smashed in, which really shocked Agnieszka as she feared what might have happened if a disabled passenger or a child in a buggy was using the space at the time.
“I could lose control of the vehicle, and somebody could be killed,” she said.
But this isn’t a rare occurrence anymore, nearly every night the drivers receive texts instructing them not to serve certain areas for safety reasons.
At its national conference in Cork last October, NBRU members gathered to say enough is enough. Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus, and Irish Rail workers spoke with Garda union representatives and politicians, who backed calls for a dedicated transport unit.
One Dart driver told of an incident where a colleague of his was assaulted by graffiti artists, and waited four hours for an ambulance that never came.
“He broke down crying,” said Darren Carrol of the incident.
“We need to do more for staff in Irish Rail.”
Ciarán Feeney, who worked with Irish Rail at Connolly station, was threatened to have his house burned down with his family inside.
A colleague of his was threatened to be “sliced open with a blade” for trying to intervene when a woman was being harassed. Another was on a train to Sligo and was kicked and spat on after asking for a fare.
Everyone had their own story to tell.
Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan said criminals “know they’re not going to encounter a guard on a train”, which needs to change.
He “regrets” that a plan for a dedicated transport police was not in the programme for Government, and it will be in the next manifesto and “hopefully” in the next programme for Government.
Fine Gael’s Senator Jerry Buttimer said: “As a society, we seem to be far more tolerant about antisocial behaviour than we were.”
Damien McCarthy of the Garda Representative Association added there has been a “dramatic societal change” in recent years.
“It should never be acceptable for somebody to accept that being assaulted at work is a normal occupational hazard,” he said, adding Garda recruitment must be fast-tracked to keep up with the assaults.
More than 800 gardaí have retired over the last two years, and new recruits can’t keep up with falling numbers. Overall, numbers have fallen to 14,176 at the end of November 2022, compared to 14,519 in November 2020.
“It’s taken too long to recruit too little,” he said.
While public transport assaults may not be top of An Garda Siochána’s to-do list, transport workers are fed up with the abuse they endure.
Former Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the NBRU that Ireland was “some bit off” the establishment of a dedicated transport police force. Such a force is not under consideration by An Garda Síochána.
But while workers wait for developments from the Government, Irish Rail has spent more than €23m of public money on private security firms over the last five years. Bus Éireann spent more than €2m in 2022.
A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said all reports are fully investigated and guards are “actively encouraged to conduct high visibility patrols on all public transport as part of their regular duties”.
An Garda Síochána said it works with transport companies “to provide a co-ordinated Garda presence on public transport, to prevent and tackle anti-social behaviour”.
For Dublin Bus driver Agnieszka, she fears real change will only follow a tragedy.
“It’s really crazy at the moment,” she said.
“I think something big really needs to happen for someone to do something about it.”
Gary Reen worries about how far things could go too.
“They’re like animals, especially with drink in them,” he said.
"You don’t know, people could take things that far, you know."