Auckland Transport (AT) says there is an ongoing alarming trend of violence and threats against bus drivers as the spate of attacks continues.
A bus driver was stabbed and seriously injured in the Auckland suburb of Mount Roskill on Saturday night.
The driver was stabbed twice and was released from hospital on Monday. A 62-year-old man was arrested shortly after the stabbing.
AT's general manager for safety Stacey van der Putten told AM on Monday there is an ongoing trend of drivers being attacked
"It is a trend and in terms of what we've seen over the last few years coming out of COVID-19, there has been, I guess, an exasperated feel in terms of the environment and that has resulted in what we've seen is increased threats and violence against our people," van der Putten told AM co-host Ryan Bridge.
"That's across the network and to our own people. We did see it really rise quite sharply in August last year. It has been declining since then, but it is something that obviously ongoing attention is required."
The attack on Saturday isn't the first time a driver has been targeted in Auckland. In September, a driver was punched and abused by a passenger. Another driver ended up in hospital in October after he was punched in the head when he told a passenger he couldn't get on to the bus with a lit cigarette. A third driver was assaulted when he was punched in the face by a disgruntled passenger on Christmas Eve in 2021.
Van der Putten said since August, there have been 41 reports of abuse, with 20-25 percent injury related.
She told AM AT has been working with operators and unions representing drivers to come up with ways to protect drivers.
One of those ways has been to have transport officers on key routes where safety is an issue.
"We saw that last year when we looked at the CityLink. CityLink was a service that was represented quite highly in the data that was coming through, so we did deploy transport officers and that has alleviated the issue. So when we have known issues we can do that," she said.
Van der Putten said AT have about 40 transport officers who are there for the safety and security of drivers as well as defusing situations when they occur.
Unions representing bus drivers say this violence isn't new - and it's getting worse.
"Bus drivers are fearing for their lives on a daily basis," said First Union organiser Hayley Courtney. "The severity of these assaults are increasing - it's becoming more frequent."
Auckland Tramways Union president added: "They're feeling apprehensive and it's the reason that some drivers leave the job - they don't want to take the risk".
Another issue raised by the unions is drivers letting passengers onboard a bus who refuse to pay so they avoid confrontation.
Van der Putten says this is an issue they're looking into.
"With COVID, what we did was we took cash off buses to limit the transactions between customers and the bus driver and with that, we did have some leniency during that time so people could obtain a HOP card so they can take public transport," she said.
"Over the course of time, in terms of making sure we're adapting to meet the needs, we will be taking a more firm position in terms of a fare policy. So public transport is not free, people do need to pay for it."
Watch the full interview with Stacey van der Putten in the video above.
