Auckland Transport is appalled at two incidents in recent days involving attacks on staff and a contractor.
AT chief executive Shane Ellison says there have been two separate incidents where essential workers have been spat at.
“We have staff working day and night to keep public transport operating and it’s distressing when they come under attack
from members of the public.”
In an incident on a train this morning, three AT transport officers were spat at by a woman. “A couple were joy-riding
on our trains and were told to get off. As they were being escorted from the train, a female spat at three of our staff.
Two men and a woman have had to be stood down as a result of this incident and have gone into isolation. This behaviour
is totally unacceptable. The incident was caught on CCTV and the police now have that footage.”
Mr Ellison says there was also a similar incident on Wednesday night involving a security guard working for AT. “This
man was spat at by a member of the public and again the police were called.
“Our staff and contractors are out there in all weathers ensuring that essential workers can get to their jobs and we
cannot tolerate this sort of behaviour. We are working with the police to ensure that our staff can do their job without
being assaulted.
“It’s quite disturbing that a few people are acting like idiots, we’ve been getting some great feedback about the
efforts that we have been making to get people around the city in these tough times but to have incidents like this is
quite upsetting.”
During Alert Level 4 Auckland Transport is maintaining a weekend service on all public transport with physical
distancing. Public transport is free and is only to be used by essential workers and people going to medical
appointments or doing shopping.
Go to Auckland Transport’s COVID-19 site: https://at.govt.nz/covid-19/