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Gardai called to Galway train

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WT CLASS 2-6-4T No. 4

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British Transport Police - http://www.btp.police.uk/ - a national service dedicated specifically to the railways. I've never actually seen one of them, if you get hassle on a train and somebody does turn up, then they will invariably be a 'real' copper from wherever you happen to be. I imagine they spend a lot of effort in combating metal theft, but I don't really know. They did once have an actual engine, which was really a little embarrassing, I thought. I saw it once and wondered what they would actually do with it...?

 

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I think British Transport Police have some officers allocated to general policing and crowd control duties in the major city stations and also an investigation and education role around public safety/trespassing. BTC regularly visit schools in areas where there are reports of children trespassing or playing chicken at level crossings.

 

When there was plenty of staff on the ground CIE checkers and porters managed crowd control/public safety. I remember a couple of rather well built Kerry railwaymen shepherding passengers onto trains at Killarney about 20 years ago when Kerry was playing in Croke Park and everyone else was visiting Kerry for the holidays.

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I worked with the BTP on London Underground in the early nineties. The bread and butter were security alerts, assaults, drunks & pickpockets, criminal damage, trespass, theft, robbery and fare evasion.

One of the worst jobs on the underground was dealing with the suicides or one-unders as they were commonly called, my overriding recollection of these was the impatience of other passengers who simply didn't care that someone was dead or fatally injured.

It has to be remembered that a lot of railway property is considered private property and offences were covered by a huge number of byelaws which cannot be dealt with by criminal law or regular police. Specialist knowledge is required when working in a railway environment especially on electrified lines. All BTP officers train with the Met or County forces and receive the same training and have the same powers of arrest. They just get to ride trains as a bonus.

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BTP must have a highly efficient internet surveillance system.

 

Having said that I've never seen a BTP officer, I just gave someone a lift to the station and two of them were coming out as we went in. They appeared to be on a mission or I would have asked them if I could take a picture (risking arrest as a terrorist suspect)....

 

The only available parking space was next to their car, too. I'm getting a little paranoid now.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think it would be better for CIE or the Rail Procurement agency to have a Transport Police with similar powers to the Gardaí, to police all the public transport services in The Republic. It would be far better than the private security firms which are employed on the Dart late night services and on some of the Galway services at present as a lot of the personnel just look like East European heavies, from the ones I encountered on a Dublin/Galway service with a hens party on board a few years ago, and wouldn't have a great understanding of Irish Law.

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i wonder would IE ever have railway police like accross the pond? are they actual police recruited from the ranks or lads employed by BR? over to you on that one Bro...

 

CIE and IR had Railway Police, but they were more glorified security guards for Inchicore etc.

 

Think network is a bit small for a dedicated force, targetting 'troublesome' services with privarte security is prob best that can be done with limited resources.

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