She’s taken the LRT for 25 years, but Carolyn Boyle says she no longer feels safe taking the train.
Boyle rides between the Belvedere Station, the University of Alberta and downtown. But over the last few years, she said the situation has deteriorated to the point where she felt a need to take security into her own hands and start a buddy system with fellow riders.
“We’ve had to walk over numerous pools of blood in order to get downstairs, we’ve seen homeless people, we’ve been asked for condoms or money, we’ve seen drug transactions,” she explained. “You feel very intimidated and you’re wondering where the security is.”
Boyle said she rarely sees peace officers when she gets on the first train in the morning and feels the security cameras just don’t cut it.
“Those monitors that they use are not sufficient because by the time anyone gets to the LRT, the crime is already finished, or they’ve already left.”
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It’s not just Belvedere Station that worries her, either.
“I get off at Corona Station in the morning to get a coffee. The things we’ve witnessed there are just as bad,” she said. “We’ve seen people having sex!”
In the fall, Boyle had her scariest encounter yet.
“There was a group of 14 or 15 kids that were clearly high that followed me and asked me for my purse.”
While she was never mugged, Boyle has regularly been reporting her concerns to 3-1-1 and feels they’re falling on deaf ears.
ETS said the best way to get help quickly is to use the emergency buttons in terminals or on trains.
“We recently removed our penalty for misuse stickers on there,” explained acting ETS customer safety and security director, Chuck Van Deel Piepers. “We want, anytime a person feels unsafe, for them to touch that button.”
“When you push it, the cameras are going to shine on you there, make sure you’re covered and help is on the way.”
It appears riders are split on the issue. Some feel safe, while others do not.
There are 65 transit peace officers employed by Edmonton Transit and at least seven of them are working at any given time. More officers are working during peak hours.
“Based on historical data, we know and can anticipate where incidents are going to happen and that’s where our peace officers are deployed,” Van Deel Piepers explained.
Those transit officers are supplemented by police officers responsible for the LRT.
“Nothing’s more important to us than our customers feeling safe in our system. That’s why we try to ensure that there is a visible presence, that they’re riding the trains, they’re out at the bus terminals, checking on the operators and the customers,” Van Deel Piepers said.
“We’d love to have an ETS peace officer on every bus, but there’s 900 buses. It’s just not realistic.”