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Regional Transit says still safe

Light rail reports 96 crimes in 12 months

October 26, 2009
by Crystal Anderson | Staff Writer

A light rail train departs City College station Oct. 5 bound for downtown Sacramento. Randy Briggs

Many people use their time on the light rail to finish up last-minute personal and work business. Laptops, cell phones, cameras, and various other electronics are commonly present at the City College light rail station for this reason.

Is it safe to bring those items onto the train, though?

According to the Web site for Sacramento Regional Transit, there were 96 reported crimes on the RT system, which is about 0.020 crimes per thousand boarding passengers, during the twelve months from Sept. 2008 to Aug. 2009. These crimes include assault, robbery, assault with a weapon, auto theft, false impersonation, felony vandalism, burglary, battery, petty theft, misdemeanor vandalism and trespassing.

Alane Masui, assistant general manager of marketing and communications for Sacramento RTD, said that she feels safe using her cell phone on the train while riding alone.
“I’ve used [my cell phone] on the train,” Masui said.

In order to help prevent crime on buses and light rail trains, Regional Transit has implemented the Abide 2 Ride program. Passengers must abide by RT rules in order to ride on any Regional Transit vehicle. A list of those rules can be found at RT’s Web site.

If an infraction is committed on an RT vehicle, at a bus stop or at a light rail station and a passenger is arrested for a crime or cited on three separate occasions within 60 consecutive days, the offender may be banned for 30 days or up to a year for a more serious offense.

According to the RT Web site, “interfering with an operator of a transit vehicle, willfully disturbing others on or in a system facility or vehicle, and defacing district property could all result in exclusion” from the RT system.