NDP's Adrian Dix Wants Safer Skytrains, and He Wants Them Now

From 24 Hours Vancouver

" Adrian Dix believes his campaign for increased transit safety is having a positive effect.

But a year and a half into the crusade, the Vancouver-Kingsway MLA insists not enough is being done to keep riders safe.

“We need TransLink and the provincial and federal governments to step up,” said Dix in front of the Nanaimo SkyTrain station yesterday. “They're finally listening a little bit, but there needs to be more pressure on them to make changes.”

Dix has proposed a 10 point program to make SkyTrain stations safer and says thousands of riders have signed a petition in support of his plan which would see more attendants at stations and better lighting.

While TransLink has implemented a few safety measures – such as the pink-whistle program – Dix and his supporters are far from satisfied.

“It's frustrating,” said David Toner, whose son – Matthew Martins – was killed at the Surrey Central SkyTrain station in 2005. “They told me work began [on safety measures] two years ago and much of it hasn't been put in yet. Why is it taking so long?”

The latest victim of an assault near a SkyTrain station, Sheshleen Datt, was in tears as she endorsed Dix's petition yesterday.

“I want to take the SkyTrain and know that I'm safe,” the teenage swarming victim said.

Datt, 18, was robbed by six teens at Nanaimo station April 29.

The security footage of the assault had been looped over and erased by the time police obtained the tape.

Digital cameras are one of the changes Dix wants to see implemented immediately. "

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2008/05/19/5611986.html

For a bit of background, from the NDP website,

" On November 12, 2007, Adrian Dix and Mike Farnworth called on Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon to take the following immediate steps:

1. Increase the number of SkyTrain police by 50%, with the goal of having one security person at every SkyTrain station while the line in operating.

2. Provide additional after-hours security at all stations.

3. Place primary focus on security rather than fare evasion.

4. Build new turnstiles now with direct grant from provincial government rather than re-directing Translink resources to private sector scheme.

5. Implement a pilot walk-home program for at least five high-risk stations.

6. Expand the Joyce-Collingwood pink-whistle program.

7. Conduct full review of lighting at SkyTrain stations.

8. Increase sponsorship of community gardens and other amenities at SkyTrain stations.

9. Support the bus drivers campaign to implement stiffer criminal penalties for attacks on transit personnel.

10. Restore support for Victims' services and anti-violence against women programs and women's centres. "

I don't like the idea of increasing the numbers of Translink Police until we can get the whole Taser issue solved, but the rest of those ideas are bang on, and would help to increase the level of safety people feel at stations, because it is not at such a high ebb right now.