Protective Services Officers began their twilight supervision of Coolaroo railway station last Tuesday in line with the state government’s “tough on crime” stance.
They will staff the station from 6pm until the last city-bound train at 11.36pm. The service will continue even if there is a change of government at the state election in November following a Labor promise to deliver 24-hour public transport on weekends.
Ringwood East, Glen Waverley and Jolimont railway stations also had their first rotation of PSOs last week.
Transit local area commander Inspector Karl Curran, who looks after the northern region of the rail network, said that since the deployment of PSOs, there had been vast improvements across the network in commuter safety, and crime rates were falling.
In the Hume and Whittlesea area, Broadmeadows, Craigieburn, Sunbury, Epping, Glenroy, Jacana, South Morang and Thomastown stations also have PSOs.
By November, the government hopes to have PSOs at 212 metropolitan and four regional railway stations.
There are PSOs at 98 train stations across the state.
“The deployment of PSOs to Coolaroo is a part of the government promise… we hope through this deployment Coolaroo residents will feel safer while using the public transport system,” Mr Curran said.
When it was first opened in June 2010 the Coolaroo station was designed to provide transport services for about 25,000 residents who live in Coolaroo, Dallas and Meadow Heights.
The latest Public Transport Victoria data shows that patronage in the 2011-12 financial year was 229,000 people.
