We need enforceable fines, security guards and gardai. It shouldn't be a surprise to see gardai/security on the train.
When you think about it there's stickers on emergency door buttons etc saying that there's a financial penalty for misuse. Of course the scumbags don't bother messing with that gear anyway because getting caught will be easy. We need similar threats for graffiti, alcohol consumption and to back them up.
No excuses should be accepted. People should be put off the train and arrested. There's no need for a new 'transport police force' or any other McDowell-ism, we need a suitable number of gardai allocated to the LUAS, DART and certain bus routes. They should then liaise with the security guys in DB, IE etc so that these scumbags are not allowed to run riot on the public transport system. Automatic fines with imprisonment for non-paying (like the Standard Fare) should be the order of the day. Anybody without ID should be arrested.
I've never seen as much vandalism in Paris' metro, Munichs U-Bahn or London's Underground as i've come across here. I'll never forget my first trip in the then-new Volvo buses back in 1994 - downstairs 'smelled' new still, yet upstairs the seats were ripped from front to back and the windows were festooned with graffiti. These scum kids have no respect for the public transport because their parents probably don't either. If I ever did anything like that when I was a kid my parents would have killed me.
We need a get-tough, no excuses policy. Because there's no point spending ridiculous amounts of money refurbishing and replacing if they're still going to stink of urine after a month.
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