A Wellington passenger has captured footage of racial abuse during a train service last night.
By Abbey Wakefield and Connor Stirling
Yesterday, on-board a train service from Wellington to Johnsonville, passenger Susan James noticed a woman being racially abusive towards a conductor and started recording it.
According to Ms James, the woman had purchased the wrong ticket for the service, and the conductor tried to rectify the situation by explaining he could exchange it for the right ticket.
“The woman demanded to see his manager and started referring to his country, she put him in a box and started racially profiling him,” she said.
Ms James said she was quite horrified and had not witnessed this behaviour before.
However, in August last year, a similar situation occurred on a Metlink service from Wellington to Upper Hutt.
The interaction between the woman and the staff member lasted for about two minutes in the video, and Ms James said it continued until the conductor moved on with his duties further down the train.
Other passengers called out the racism, and Ms James said this eventually lead to the woman getting off the train.
“If you don’t call her out, you’re saying that’s OK, and it’s not OK,” she said.
A Metlink spokesperson said the company has applauded the way the on-board staff member approached the situation, and they are ensuring he has support around him at this time.
“Metlink does not condone any racist behaviour, and we would also like to thank the passengers on board for coming forward in support of our staff member,” said a Metlink spokesperson.
This was the first time in 20 years Ms James caught the train, and after the woman left the service, all the passengers were apologising to the conductor and tried to reassure him.
“People should not have to go to work and deal with this,” she said.
The tweet also says the woman claims to work for Women's Refuge.
In a statement, a Women's Refuge spokesperson denies any association with the individual in the video and says the organisation would not condone such "abhorrent behavior".
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