More than 760 incidents involving anti-social behaviour occurred on the country’s rail network during the first six months of this year, new figures have revealed.

They included multiple reports of fighting, soiling, sexual harassment, lewd behaviour and hate attacks, many involving drugs or alcohol.

Nearly half of the 763 incidents took place on DART services, while the remainder occurred on Irish Rail’s intercity routes, records released under FoI laws state.

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Barry Kenny, corporate communications manager with Irish Rail, said the company had been working
extensively with gardai and its private security personnel to ensure a safe travelling and working environment.

He added: “Anti-social behaviour is a societal issue to which we are not immune – however, we are encouraged that since mid-year 2021, the trend in criminal/ASB incidents has begun to reduce year on year, indicating that the range of measures we have put in place are taking effect.”

A further 82 incidents were reported during the first three weeks of July, bringing the average number of anti-social behaviour complaints each month to 125, despite Irish Rail spending €5.7million on security last year.

More than 50 incidents since the beginning of the year involved fighting, including one that was described as “intoxication related” on the DART at Lansdowne Road on July 8, after Westlife had performed at the nearby Aviva Stadium.

The records reveal a pattern of lewd behaviour on the Mallow-Tralee route during the first half of 2022.

On January 29, a man was reported to be harassing women and exhibiting “aggressive behaviour” at Mallow Station, Cork. The same accusations were made in relation to a man on board the 1.05pm Tralee to Mallow train on June 8, while an incident involving “aggressive sexual harassment” was reported on the same train four days later. A similar complaint on the route followed on June 29.

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