Article: Taxpayers foot $15,000 a day graffiti clean-up bill

[ozbob]

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/steamed-up-over-55m-graffiti-bill/story-e6freon6-1226163365063

Taxpayers foot $15,000 a day graffiti clean-up bill

Taxpayers foot $15,000 a day graffiti clean-up bill

    by: Robyn Ironside
    From: The Courier-Mail
    October 11, 2011 12:00AM

MORE than 100 times a week, graffiti is being sprayed and splashed over southeast Queensland trains and railway stations, resulting in a $15,000 a day clean-up bill for taxpayers.

There were 5323 graffiti incidents recorded by Queensland Rail in the past year, with the Beenleigh, Caboolture and Ipswich lines the hardest hit.

The line from South Brisbane to Beenleigh suffered 1179 attacks, followed by Caboolture (1162) and Ipswich (1057).

Queensland Rail CEO Paul Scurrah said most of graffiti was cleaned almost immediately at a cost of $5.5 million annually.

"Our rapid removal program ensures most graffiti is removed from stations and trains within 24 hours," Mr Scurrah said.

"We have a team working through the night and their aim is to ensure the damage does not see the light of day."

He said QR worked closely with police to catch those responsible, with 54 officers employed in the railway squad and 8200 security cameras across the network.

"We're sick and tired of these grubs on our network," Mr Scurrah said.

"There is a long list of people facing court for hundreds of counts of wilful damage to our property. Vandals do not get away with acts of graffiti."

In August police charged seven people with more than 800 counts of wilful damage following an operation targeting graffiti. And last October, an Ipswich man was sentenced to nine months' jail after being convicted of his 37th graffiti offence.

QR statistics show stations are the biggest target for graffiti vandals and construction will begin next year on a police outpost at Robina station.

[SurfRail]

In the last few days, I saw CityRail rollingstock so badly defaced that if it were QR stock, I would bet dollars to donuts they would not be permitted in service without a visit to Redbank for a refurb!

It was very refreshing to compare my trip home from Coolangatta yesterday (a very clean Surfside bus on the 761 to Varsity Lakes, and a littered but still very clean on the outside IMU to Nerang) to my trips earlier in the day (defaced State Transit buses, H-sets to and from Wollongong with entire carriage faces covered in spraypaint, local buses in the Gong with scratched windows and litter.)

Sydney is a very scabby city, in a way that Melbourne doesn't quite approach.  Mind you, apart from the interurban frequencies, PT is generally quite a bit easier to use, so perhaps they have simply gotten the priorities right?

[somebody]

Sydney is a very scabby city, in a way that Melbourne doesn't quite approach.  Mind you, apart from the interurban frequencies, PT is generally quite a bit easier to use, so perhaps they have simply gotten the priorities right?

They lack the focus on limited stops bus routes, even though stopping patterns of the rail services seem to get a lot of attention.  Similarly, late night services and on weekends are often quite lacking.  There is a real lack of will to drive patronage growth in the off peak.  Ticketing is also daft, and in general the service has far far too many rules - stop restrictions should all be abolished for example.