A man has been fined £300 for obstructing the doors of a Metro train, causing a delay to the service.
Stephen Cullen, 55, of Buttermere Grove in Oldham has pleaded guilty to obstructing the doors on a Metro train, at Byker station on March 2, 2014. He appeared at Court on April 16 and was fined £300, and £90 costs.
This latest ruling follows a number of recent, successful prosecutions, after Metro launched a campaign to encourage people not to obstruct train doors.
Sharon Kelly, Director of Customer Services and Operations at DB Regio Tyne and Wear, which operates the Metro on behalf of Nexus, said: “Safety is our priority, in addition to providing passengers with a reliable service. We want passengers to understand the impact that obstructing the train doors can have.
“Not only is obstructing the doors dangerous, it also causes damage and can have a knock on effect with reliability as trains quite often have to be taken out of service.
“We would rather not prosecute and fine people, but these types of incidents are serious and the knock on impact can be huge. It’s therefore important people understand that we will prosecute them and they could be fined up to £1,000.”
As well as being dangerous, obstructing the doors of Metro trains is costly and causes major disruption to services. If the doors of a train are damaged, the train must be taken out of service to be checked and repaired, causing inconvenience to hundreds of passengers at a time.
Recent prosecutions include:
• Rachael Bolton, 21, of Simonside Hall, South Shields, was fined £28, ordered to pay a £20 victim surcharge and £90 costs for obstructing the doors at South Shields on 10th December 2014.
• Steven Richardson, 32, of Holly Avenue, Wallsend, was fined £82.50, ordered to pay £20 surcharge and £90 costs for obstructing the doors at Wallsend on 18th Jan 2014.
• Glenn Smith, 26, of Ridley Terrace, Gateshead, was fined £300 and ordered to pay £20 surcharge and £90 costs for obstructing the doors at Stadium of Light, on 22nd Jan 2014.
The Metro doors campaign includes a specially commissioned animation, featuring cartoon characters who receive a range of injuries as a result of obstructing train doors. The film is being used on Metro’s social media channels in a bid to educate passengers about the dangers and reduce the number of incidents of people obstructing train doors. View the animation here.