NS to fight aggressive passengers with extra staff

NS will deploy more employees on trains and in stations that have an above average number of aggressive incidents, the company announced on its website. NS expects this measure to improve actual safety as well as the feeling of safety of staff and passengers. There are currently already two railway employees on many late trains on weekends. This "double staffing" will now gradually be implemented on night trains that don't already have double staff, on specific trains on Sunday mornings to deal with people returning from parties, on Thursday and Saturday nights to deal with the many party-goers, and at a later stage also on Friday nights. The company plans to expand this measure further in the future. To make this possible NS will hire more than 100 extra security guards for access control at stations. This measure forms part of the measures agreed upon on March 11th between unions, government NS and ProRail. Other measures intended to reduce aggression include permanent police deployment at 20 large stations, accelerated closing of turnstiles, more information exchange with the police, tackling notorious problem causers, accelerating the station ban and additional cameras at the smaller stations. These measures are evaluated periodically to monitor their effectiveness.