The victims earlier told the Herald that they were attacked by about 30 teenagers, and left with life-altering head injuries and scars.<\/p>\n
The father said the attack was \u201cpretty horrific\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you front up to an A&E, and you see your child …literally covered in blood, blood all through her hair, ripped clothes. I mean, that was pretty dramatic,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The father said the lack of data he was given from AT meant patterns of incidents across the public transport network were not easily available. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I was trying to do is try and see which routes people were being injured on and whether that frequency was going up or down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they came back and said \u2018we actually can\u2019t tell you\u2019, it\u2019s quite concerning,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The father said AT needed to support the victims and \u201cactually do something to mitigate the risk\u201d. <\/p>\n
The father of a young train assault victim is calling out his \u201cconcerning\u201d discovery that Auckland Transport doesn\u2019t record vital statistics on attacks. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
Lack of AT records <\/p>\n
The OIA response from AT, shared with the Herald, said its record of reported injuries on bus, train and ferry services did not distinguish between injuries from minor slips or falls or criminal activity. <\/p>\n
On bus and ferry services alone, there were 356 records of abuse, 209 of assault and 286 of injury from November 2023 to November 2025. <\/p>\n
These statistics also did not specifically distinguish between harassment that is sexual or not, or whether theft or robbery took place during the incident. <\/p>\n
For train services within the same period, there were 38 records of injury, 28 records of antisocial behaviour or passenger issues and 156 records of robbery. <\/p>\n
The record of incidents on train services was also not broken down by harassment, sexual or otherwise. <\/p>\n
For each report, the father sought the service number\/route, the location of the incident, the number of victims, the nature of the act, AT\u2019s customer response after the incident, and AT\u2019s management response in terms of resulting changes to health and safety policies or processes. <\/p>\n
In response, he was told \u201cAT\u2019s records are not broken down by the specific service, location, number of victims or the nature of the act\u201d. <\/p>\n
An Auckland father has accused Auckland Transport (AT) of major failures around passenger safety. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
In the OIA response, AT said to provide the records in full detail, it would require a manual review of 1073 records. <\/p>\n
His request was therefore refused under section 17(f) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) because it amounted to a substantial collation.<\/p>\n
The father said this response left him \u201ccompletely befuddled\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth and safety 101 is you need to know where the problem lies. <\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise, you can\u2019t solve it … if you can\u2019t even prioritise finding the information to figure out how injuries are happening, then you\u2019ve got no hope of trying to fix it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
AT respond <\/p>\n
AT said it is working to automate some of its reporting and safety insights, but said the updates would not \u201csignificantly change\u201d the way it responded to incidents and deployed safety staff. <\/p>\n
Rachel Cara, AT group manager, public transport operations, said there are variations in how safety incident data is reported. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe data provided enables our teams to quickly respond to incidents and adjust our proactive safety measures accordingly,\u201d Cara said. <\/p>\n
She said AT\u2019s public transport operators provided prompt updates on major incidents to AT public transport operations teams, including staff in the Auckland Transport Operations Centre and the Auckland Rail Operations Centre. <\/p>\n
The father of a train assault victim is calling out his \u201cconcerning\u201d discovery that Auckland Transport does not record vital statistics on attacks. Photo \/ Jason Oxenham <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen our teams are responding to incidents, we don\u2019t rely solely on high-level data categories to inform how we manage these \u2013 instead we look at the specific details and respond accordingly,” Cara said. <\/p>\n
She said, depending on the incident, the AT response could include informing emergency services and supporting police investigations, redeploying security guards and transport officers, or informing the longer-term programme of safety initiatives across the network.<\/p>\n
Cara said that the large scale of Auckland\u2019s public transport network meant the range of incidents varied widely. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, incidents broadly categorised as \u2018robbery or theft\u2019 range from very rare incidents of serious theft investigated by police, through to instances of drinks being taken from vending machines,\u201d Cara said. <\/p>\n
Three women and a man in their early 20s were left fearful of public transport after an unprovoked attack. <\/p>\n
Cara said AT works closely with its bus, train and ferry operators to keep customers safe and to effectively respond to \u201crare incidents\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenges we grapple with on public transport are the same issues that play out on our streets, in our communities and in our homes,\u201d Cara said. <\/p>\n
She said the difference with public transport is that when incidents do occur, they do so in a very public place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means it is vitally important that Auckland Transport and our public transport partners work closely together and with agencies like police and Auckland Council to proactively manage public transport safety,\u201d Cara said. <\/p>\n
Senior lecturer in workplace health and safety at Victoria University, Dr Chris Peace, told the Herald that incident data is important for identifying concerns. <\/p>\n
\u201cWithout the data and knowing time and service and the potential causes and consequences, you can\u2019t do anything,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
For example, Peace said it would be helpful to know if a particular train service was having a series of problems or assaults and robberies on a particular line after certain hours. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t know that they\u2019re happening or where they\u2019re happening or … the factors involved in cause and consequence, the police won\u2019t be able to do much. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou need the data to show that,\u201d Peace said. <\/p>\n