More safety barriers between passengers and bus drivers will be installed and additional network officers will begin patrolling public transport services.
Faced with the growing threat of bus drivers boycotting routes in Brisbane, the Queensland government has vowed to spend $60.7 million over the next five years to improve public transport safety.
Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said more safety barriers between passengers and bus drivers would be installed, and extra network officers would begin patrolling public transport services.Mr Bailey said new network officers would operate on public transport networks where they were most needed, while police would increase their focus on public transport services in the Brisbane metropolitan area.
The initial phase of the program will add 29 network officers on the Gold Coast, Logan and the Sunshine Coast.Police would also be tasked with assisting TransLink staff. Network officers are to be given more powers to enforce conditions of travel and issue infringement notices, including fines, for public transport offences.Bus driver barriers are now mandatory in Queensland for all new urban fleet buses on the Translink network, an initiative of the government's bus driver safety review.
RTBU secretary Tom Brown welcomed the decision to install more full safety barriers on buses across the state, saying drivers had continued to feel unsafe since the killing of Manmeet Alisher on a bus in Moorooka in 2018.
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