For 22 months, Skånetrafiken has had a safety line that worried travelers can call. In total, six employees received 593 calls, but of these, 514 were false calls. The majority of the 79 calls relating to insecurity have come in during the day and each call has cost just over SEK 94,000, reports Kristianstadsbladet.
According to an evaluation, which the newspaper has seen, most of the 79 calls have come from insecure people. For example, it has involved a man who felt alone on a bus and a woman who wanted company at a deserted bus stop.
In cases where there have been threatening situations, for example drunk people who have behaved badly, the security line has not been able to act. There are also examples of the line having a negative impact in certain situations – the people in question should have alerted the police in the first place.
The total cost of the pilot project amounts to August this year at SEK 7.5 million, of which SEK 4.1 million are personnel and training costs and SEK 3.3 million has gone to information campaigns.
The safety line is still running, but the proposal to Region Skåne’s public transport board is that the operation be shut down.
In the player above: Hear Carina Zachau, the regional Skåne public transport board, defend the expensive bill which she does not think is a fiasco.