Archive for the ‘Police’ Category
A rail passenger from Boreham Wood has been jailed for five months after racially abusing a First Capital Connect inspector.
Zimbabwae born Hilton Materke was working as a Revenue Inspector at the time of the incident at Elstree and Borehamwood station.
Charles Law (pictured left) of Stratfield Road was found gulity of Racially-aggravated assault.
PFAS belives that this mans behaviour against a member of rail staff doing his job in accordence with the rules, is totally unacceptable. This man was also convicted of the same offence at the same station some months previous. PFAS hopes that FCC will seek to gain an ASBO to ban this male from any FCC stations and trains upon his release.
We have asked British Transport Police and FCC to comment.
So your the Prime Minister in London and fancy a trip to Stevenage, what do you do? You get a train of course.
“Ah but what a seat as were travelling at peak time Mr Brown?” your special advisor whines at you.
“No problem Jeeves, I’ll just take over a whole carriage on the 09:52 from Kings Cross”.
“But it’s peak time and it will be busy.” he whines back at you.
“Sod them, I’m the PM, I can do what I like.”
So there’s the senario, except it’s not fiticious it’s real (we dramatised the conversation).
Gordon Brown, the current Prime Minister, caught a train from London Kings Cross this morning at 09:52 to go to Stevenage to speak against Tory plans to delete DNA off the biggest database in the world, after 3 Years.
He was joined by a few press reporters and photographers. The Home Secretary was also present.
We have been told that the carriage that was taken over had only a few people in it. The rest of the train was full and standing!
An average train carriage (class 365) has 56 seats excluding First Class (add 12), (if anyone knows the exact number please add a comment below). So did Gordon Brown have a ticket? Did anyone pay for their own ticket? Did First Capital Connect get any money?
What percentage of that carriage was actually full (around 10% full we’ve been told)?
We have also been told that 5 managers were involved in the run up to Gordon Browns visit to Stevenage. Five!! Somedays it’s hard to find just one!!!
PFAS would also like it to be known that we knew about Gordon Browns visit to Stevenage at 18:00 Thursday night and his demands to take over a whole carriage, however in the interests of security we have choosen to publish this story at a later date.
Comments Closed
Beleaguered Train operator First Capital Connect experienced the wrath of passengers this morning.
Due to yet another broken down FCC train in Central London (presumably caused by poor maintenance thanks to cost cutting) someone in FCC West Hampstead Control thought it would be clever to cancel a train which was already full and standing to keep a timetable.
The train, which is reported to be the 07:32 departure from St Albans, arrived at Cricklewood at 0752. The driver then told the passengers to get off the train as it was being cancelled due to a broken down train.
Around 20 passengers then refused to get off the train and stood their ground.
It has also been reported to us at PFAS that staff and the driver shouted at the passengers to get off the train, and threatened them with getting the police. The driver then announced over the PA system that the police had now been called.
Several other people then got back on the train to support the other passengers.
The train eventually left 34 minutes late after FCC finally used their brains and realised they weren’t getting anywhere, and reinstated the train.
FCC’s Roger Perkins released a spin statement stating the following:
“The train came to a halt in Cricklewood and the driver would have made an announcement that it was going to terminate there. Twenty passengers would not get off the train and eventually, because of that, the train did then run. The effect of that is that it caused more delays to other people on other services up and down the line.
When we do this it’s not a decision we take lightly, it is for very good reason. It’s about regulating the service and getting as many people into London as quickly as possible when we have a serious delay such as this.”
Roger claims that “its not a decision they take lightly”, however PFAS can report that cancelling trains short of destinations and then making them into return journeys is so that FCC can massage their performance figures. Yeah it maybe a decision they don’t take lightly but not in the benefit of passengers.
People are reminded to claim their compensation from FCC at http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/DelayRepay.
Furthermore please sign the petition to get this company stripped of its franchise. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/FirstCC/
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UPDATE: We have again contacted First Capital Connect for comment on this and our previous story, but as seems to be the normal First Capital Connect have failed to respond to our emails. First Capital Connect who pride themselves on ‘Customer Service’ seem to believe that protecting passengers from abusive staff isn’t something that they need to worry about.
We have now forwarded out reports to the DFT who administer the Penalty Fare Scheme. We have also been in contact with local MP’s who are going to take up the issue on our behalf.
Following on from our previous report: See Here
We have received a worrying report from a pregnant passenger that was assaulted by a member of First Capital Connect Staff.
We have been given permission from the passenger to release this information in the hope that First Capital Connect start to listen to their passengers about the appalling behaviour of their revenue team.
Please note names have been removed to protect individual identities.
The incident happened on 03/11/2009 at Farringdon station, where a passenger disembarked from a First Capital Connect Service travelling from East Croydon.
When the passenger disembarked from the train at Farringdon station she was met by a group of Revenue Protection Inspectors, A female inspector asked for her ticket and she proceeded to show her Oyster Travel card. The inspector checked the Oyster Card on a handheld Oyster reader and advised her that this was fine. The passenger then proceeded to the ticket office to purchase a zone extension to her travel card.
While she was queuing, the inspector rushed over behind her and told her that the ticket was not valid for the journey that she had made and would have to pay an “On the spot Penalty Fare of £20.00” and demanded cash or credit card payment immediately.
The passenger challenged the inspector and advised that she would like to take this up with First Capital Connect and offered to give her details to the inspector for First Capital Connect to send the relevant information in the post.
The inspector then forcefully snatched the passengers Oyster card out of her hand and said “Ill keep this card and you can do the writing.”
The passenger then became very upset by this whole incident and asked to speak to the station manager. The inspector then stated “I am the manager”. The passenger advised the inspector to give her property back or she would call the police. The inspector refused to give the Oyster card back and she then contacted the British Transport Police who attended the station.
The passenger stayed with the inspector until the police arrived at the station, she attempted again to put her case across to the inspector who told her to “Shut up, your doing my head in”. The inspector then began to walk down the steps towards the platform so the passenger began to follow her. The passenger asked the inspector not to leave as the police were on their way.
Both the passenger and the inspector were standing outside the supervisors office and the inspector asked someone to let her in, The passenger attempted to enter the office to speak to someone in charge, at this point the incident escalated.
The inspector put both of her hand on the passengers stomach and pushed her out of the way shouting “Get out of my F*****g face”.
The inspector then walked into another room next door and the station staff that were in the supervisors office at the time offered the passenger a seat as they could see how upset she was and concerned for the condition of her and her baby.
The passenger then waited for the police to arrive and take a statement, after giving all the details the inspector was arrested and taken to a local police station.
We at PFAS find this kind of behavior appalling and demand that First Capital Connect sit up and take notice that this kind of behavior is not acceptable.
This is one of many incidents that have been brought to our attention, all of which have been brought to the attention of the FCC Managing Director Jim Morgan and the Director of First Group UK Moir Lockheed, who have ignored our emails and requests for comments hoping that we will just go away.
We believe that First Capital Connect have no interest in passenger safety and security and are only interested in profit and as such are fully supporting their inspectors in whatever action they take, even if it is illegal.
We are pleased to announce that the passenger concerned is pressing charges against the inspector and we will provide any updates once we receive them.
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Update:
Services on 14th September 2009
Services between Moorgate and Finsbury Park will be suspended all day.
After 22:00, all First Capital Connect services will be suspended.
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Members of the RMT union will go on strike in support of an unfairly sacked colleague next Monday for 24 Hours.
Ms Lock was a member of First Capital Connect’s Revenue team when the incident in question happened. Ms Lock was actually assaulted by the passenger and First Capital Connect sacked her for it.
We have been given copies of the actual disciplinary notes and other internal documents which show the actual procedure as a farce and forgone conclusion from the beginning.
General secretary Bob Crow said: “With the train companies turning up the pressure for more and harsher penalty fares they are putting more and more staff at the risk of assault of the kind suffered by Rachel Lock.
“It’s a scandal that, instead of supporting their member of staff in this traumatic situation, they have chosen instead to sack her.
“We will not tolerate a situation where RMT members on revenue teams are treated in this callous and brutal way and we are determined to secure a just outcome for Rachel Lock that protects not just her livelihood, but sends out a clear signal on behalf of other revenue staff running the daily risk of assault.”
A spokesman for First Capital Connect said the firm would not reinstate Ms Lock.
“This is an unnecessary strike over the dismissal of an employee for gross misconduct,” he said.
“The incident was seen by several credible witnesses including an off-duty police officer.”
He added: “The safety and security of our staff is our absolute top priority and FCC has followed the disciplinary procedure agreed with the trade unions all the way through to appeal.”
FCC would run “as near a full service as possible” during the strike, he said.
PFAS disputes the above claims that “the safety and security of our staff is our absolute top priority” when both First Capital Connect and FirstGroup cant even be bothered to reply to our safety concern E-mails.
Furthermore the so called “credible witness off-duty police officer” is currently being investigated by their professional standards department for making a false statement.
We have not bothered to contact the First Capital Connect spokesman as he cant be bothered to reply to us.
British Transport Police are appealing for information after a train conductor was headbutted at Crawley railway station.
The assult took place on Thursday 20th August 2009 when the 11.16pm Redhill to Horsham Southern service stopped at Crawley. The attack left the 38-year-old victim with a fractured cheekbone.
“The conductor asked a man to get off the train at the next stop because he was smoking and being abusive,” DC Craig said.
“The man got off the train at Crawley around 11.40pm but headbutted and punched the member of staff on the platform, leaving him with a fractured cheekbone and cuts above his right eye.”
Police were called to the scene but the man fled the station before officers arrived.
DC Craig added: “Why the man felt he had the right to headbutt a member of staff who was simply doing his job is inconceivable, although this sort of violence is rare on the rail network, I am treating this incident very seriously. Everybody has a right to go to work without fear of verbal or physical attack. We’ve made local enquiries as part of the investigation, spoken with witnesses and ask anyone who recognises this man to come forward”
Anyone with any information that could assist the investigation into the incident is asked to contact British Transport Police on Freefone 0800 40 50 40 quoting incident B3 of 28/08/09 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
PFAS is disgusted at this males behaviour and the sooner he is bought to justice the better. Railway staff do an increasingly difficult job as it is, without having to deal with the threat of verbal or physical assault. If you know anything about this incident, know the male above, or even think you might know who he is, please contact the British Transport police on freephone 0800 40 50 40. The police can then decide if your information is relevant or not.