Female train staff especially exposed to threats and violence

As late as Wednesday, there was an assault on a train heading towards Gothenburg. A drug-affected man killed people on the train and when the staff intervened, the man attacked a train host with a broken glass bottle.

According to the police, train values ​​must have received mild cuts.

The event is not the first. Ttela reported on August 1 about messy and noisy youth gangs that spread fear among staff and passengers on the trains between Vänersborg and Gothenburg.

Riitta Turpeinen, who is a train host on SJ Götaland train, thinks it is a social and rewarding job but that it is at the same time terrible, what her colleagues have been exposed to.

- You should not have to be exposed to a job. We just do our job and we should be respected for that, ”she says.

She talks about colleagues who have been spit on and beaten at work.

- You get to hear one thing and another, you are called different things, she says.

Riitta Turpeinen says that it is mainly about people who refuse to pay for the ticket.

According to figures regarding threats and violence in the profession of train personnel in Västra Götaland, from the Swedish Work Environment Authority, female train personnel are particularly exposed. Eighty-five percent of the reports of threats and violence at work concern women.

Mikael Lindskog is the traffic manager at SJ Götaland trains.

"Every report of threats and violence at work is a failure," he says.

He cannot answer why there are more reports from female staff.

- It should not be unsafe for any employee to do their job, whether it is a man or a woman.

SJ Götaland trains and Västtrafik have since March started with body-worn cameras on the train hosts. It is one of several measures to reduce the safety of trains.

- Some think it is great, others are scared and may find that it triggers more than it helps, says Mikael Lindskog.

Riitta Tupeinen thinks it feels better with the camera.

- It's been a lot calmer since I started using it, and I don't think it's a coincidence, she says.

The traffic manager says that the camera is one of several measures used to reduce insecurity. Another measure is guardians who are put on some distances.